


Human Torch

by Blue_Hood



Series: Power Prompts [10]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), Fantastic Four (2015), Fantastic Four (Comicverse), Inhumans (TV 2017), Iron Man (Movies), Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alien Abduction, Aliens, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, Enemies to Friends, Firebending & Firebenders, Inhumans (Marvel), Long Lost/Secret Relatives, Military Training, Multi, Past Character Death, Secret Past, Superpowers, Team Bonding, Team Dynamics, Team as Family, Uniforms
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-30
Updated: 2021-02-22
Packaged: 2021-03-08 18:15:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 32
Words: 51,368
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27291055
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Blue_Hood/pseuds/Blue_Hood
Summary: Expansion of Chapter 36 of What Superpower Should Tony Stark Have?What if Tony was Inhuman? What if he was a part of the Fantastic Four? How would things change?
Relationships: Crystal Amaquelin/Tony Stark, Franklin Richards & Kristoff Vernard, Howard Stark/Maria Stark, Medusalith Amaquelin/Blackagar Boltagon, Reed Richards/Susan Storm (Fantastic Four), Tony Stark & Yon-Rogg
Series: Power Prompts [10]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1986601
Comments: 143
Kudos: 13





	1. Inhuman

When Tony was 12, he learned of another world: Attilan. His mother had him dress up in strange clothes then go out to the woods where a giant bulldog was waiting with a blond haired girl in a yellow dress. His mother told him "Tony, this is Crystal and Lockjaw, they're going to take us to meet the rest of my family."

"I thought your family died in a car accident."

"All will be explained soon," Crystal said "Please, place your hand on Lockjaw, we don't want to be late." Tony followed his mother's lead and they were transported to a strange city. His mother took his hand and followed Crystal to a room where two groups of people were waiting. One group was all dressed alike and the way they were studying him made him uncomfortable. The other group was a lot less uniform and Crystal walked over to them, maybe they're the family his mother mentioned.

His mother led him up to a display case in the middle of the room and opened the door. "Please step inside."

"What-"

"Everything is going to be alright. It'll all make more sense if we do this first."

"Do what?"

"Please step inside and you'll see." Myrra didn't have permission to share Inhuman history with her son for fear he would accidentally expose them. Tony let go of her hand and got in the Terrigenesis Chamber. Myrra closed it then moved to join the rest of her family while a member of the Genetic Council came forward with a Terrigen Crystal and slid it through the slot. They all watched as the Mists surrounded him before being sucked out. Looking to Black Bolt, she received a nod permission to open the chamber.

Tony came out as soon as the door opened "What was that? What's going on? Where are we?" Stress, unfortunately, was a very good trigger so Myrra stayed silent until her son spontaneously combusted. "What the Hell?"

"Calm down, Tony."

"You said you'd explain."

"And I will. Centuries ago, aliens called the Kree came to Earth and experimented on primitive humans. The survivors of these experiments rose against the Kree, who intended to use them as weapons. After chasing the Kree away, they attempted to live in peace among humans but were forced to flee and isolate themselves. They created a kingdom all their own called Attilan and took to calling themselves Inhuman, these people were our ancestors. What just happened was you underwent Terrigenesis, a process which awakens your Inhuman nature."

"So we're in Attilan?" inferred Tony, finally calming down enough to snuff out the last few flames.

"Yes."

"You said something about family."

Before she could explain more, the head of the Genetic Council interrupted, wanting to test the new Inhuman. He quickly aggravated Tony to the point where the boy threw fire at him and Medusa was able to diplomatically suggest they hold off on the tests, hiding a smile. Black Bolt made a few gestures, which Medusa translated as a dismissal that the Council could not refuse. Seeing her son staring, Myrra said "That's the Genetic Council. They oversee Terrigenesis and evaluate the results. Attilan is a kingdom," she then introduced the Royal Family, ending with Gorgon "My brother, your uncle."

"What's your real name? 'Cause Maria doesn't seem very Inhuman."

"Myrra, and I'm still your mother so you're not going to use it."

"Right."

Myrra huffed fondly, "You can ask. I'm sure all of the kids from Earth are gonna wonder."

"All of the kids? I'm not the only one."

"A few people were approved to go down-"

"Down?"

"Attilan is located on the moon."

"Okay."

"A few people were approved to go down in order to expand the gene pool."

Seeing her hesitation, Tony smiled "I know how dangerous it is to have a small gene pool to draw from, I'm in AP classes, remember?"

"I remember, well on your way to MIT." At her son's look, Myrra laughed "Yes, we're still going to live on Earth after you finish training with your powers. We want to avoid detection by humans, can't do that if we make prominent people disappear but you're going to have to be careful not to have kids without the Council's approval. They'll determine what human genes are a threat to our Inhuman genes."

"Right. Isn't it weird living on Earth and following those rules?"

"After your father and I got married, I had almost no contact with Attilan until you were born and then only to set this up."

"Was it weird going from Attilan to America?"

"Yes, very and I had to pretend it wasn't to blend in."

"How'd you get your human identity set up?"

"Well, it's much easier than you might think. I lied and told the police that I'd been robbed, got all new paperwork issued."

Decades later, Tony found himself lying on the hood of a stolen convertible parked outside a barn in Hawaii. He'd just read two humans in on Attilan, focusing on the general history and Royal Family tree. Why was he lying on the hood of a car? He had a few calls to make and liked to have fun while adulting. JARVIS had tracked down the whole family, except for Maximus who had apparently staged a coup. Once he was done setting up Senator Ellen Nadeer to fall for her involvement with the Watchdogs and laid the groundwork for a more mutually beneficial legislature regarding Inhumans. He told JARVIS "Call Maximus, make it look like I just landed." He looked over at the phone, which was synced to his official wrist communicator. When the call went through, he spoke in a fake cheery voice "Hey Max. I noticed you made some charges on that account I set up for you. Mind telling me what you're doing in Hawaii?"

"I'm not in Hawaii, Ant. I'm sponsoring a scientist who is based there, Evan Declan, he's working with the new Inhumans."

"Y'know what? That makes more sense. Listen, I can't get through to Crys' or Lock'. I don't mean to be rude but you wouldn't happen to know what's up with that."

"Let's talk in person."

"But you're in Attilan. Isn't it illegal for people to leave Attilan without an official assignment? I thought that was why Uncle G never visited mom. Did you lie to me about that?"

"I never lied to you and I never told you that. Things are complicated. If you go to the lab, I can arrange transport to Attilan."

"Give me 3 hours. There's this thing here on Earth called traffic and it's horrible, it makes what should be a five minute trip take an hour and I need to find the lab before I can even start trying to figure out the fastest route, plus I wanna talk to your scientist. Three hours, sound good?"

"That will work. See you then."

"See ya, Max-i-mus."

"Goodbye, An-ton-y." Maximus hung up and Tony laughed.

Crystal asked "When did you two get so many jokes going?"

"When I was 12 and Maximus told me what Black Bolt was short for. He said he struggled to say his brother's full name when he was little and I laughed in his face because Black-a-gar Bolt-a-gon is very easy to sound out." To the humans, he said "You can see why he goes by Black Bolt." After a moment, they both agreed. "Anyway," turning to Karnak in particular and his fellow Inhumans in general, Tony said "I know it's a trap but I'm gonna spring it anyway and you're going to let me. I can't pretend I don't have a clue what's going on if you guys are with me. My clueless act is going to be my greatest asset going in." Karnak nodded slowly and Tony remembered he had a concussion. "Your ability is not gone, your brain is just bruised from the sudden drop when you fell. Your body wasn't expecting it so your skull and cranial fluid couldn't compensate. In short, you're concussed, it'll pass."

"As all things do," finished Karnak, more on memory than anything.

"The fact you're not amnesiac suggests a mild concussion not a severe one but I'm not a doctor so what would I know. JARVIS, what's the latest I can leave for Declan's lab and still arrive with time to spare?"

"Travel time in the suit, five to ten minutes."

"Five to ten?"

"Depending on stealth needs and showboating."

"Shut up. So I'll leave thirty minutes early, give myself time to talk to Declan and get everyone to calm down from Iron Man dropping in."

"That would be wise, Sir."

Crystal asked "What's your plan?"

"Talk to Maximus," Tony's gaze flicked to Medusa "I'm not gonna try to make him give up the throne, that would ruin my cover. I'll play along with whatever lies he spouts and only defend myself if he tries to kill me. If our roles were reversed, I was him and he was me, I'd paint him as Myrra's long lost son and use his presence to get more of Attilan's elite on my side by getting him to claim support, keep him ignorant to the fact I usurped the throne as long as possible. I'm not intending to let him keep the throne but I'm not gonna drag him down here so you can kill him or let you two tear Attilan apart in a civil war." He turned to Dave and Louise, "JARVIS is already on your phones. If this drags out, he'll give you directions on how to handle my cousins and uncle. There's only so long that a bunch of people can go unnoticed by the world, it's a lot longer than you might think but I'll try to keep this short." With his plan ironed out, he got them to play "Myth or reality, rumor or fact. C'mon, this is much safer than truth or dare and more fun than a board game."

"We can ask you about any tabloid story and you'll tell the truth?" clarified Dave.

"Exactly, you can also ask about the supposed Inhuman facts circulating the web or Avengers' business, Iron Man, Human Torch- it's the name I adopted when I was young and irresponsible and decided to be a superhero for the first time- anything."

"The playboy thing," began Louise.

"That's a bit complicated. True and false. It's um, it's a Stark thing, grandpa Reginar was a playboy in his day before World War One, dad obviously. Starks tend to go through a playboy phase and since everyone wanted to constantly compare me to my father, they started making a big deal out of everything. There was this one picture, I was clearly drunk and bumped into a random girl at a party, the picture was attached to a story about how I took the girl home and y'know the rest. I actually spent that night in a hallway, passed out and left the next day for class or a meeting or something. Point is, I wasn't even home."

"But there were-"

"Yeah, there were cases where I did take people home after a party but I was usually drunk inventing while they were sleeping it off in a guest room."

"So totally false with you?"

"Yeah but it is a Stark thing. Dad told me stories about his dad's youthful indiscretions and apparently, grandma Ainsley almost wanted nothing to do with grandpa Reginar. Dad was drunk when he told me about this, ranting and raving and at least a little bit depressed, going on about how he ruined everything. Mom entered his life too late, she tried when I was a kid to get him away from Peggy Carter but Aunt Peg had her hooks in too deep. She did scare Carter off Edwin Jarvis, even got her to leave me alone but dad didn't know about that and Peg often sorta threatened me, building a circuit board at age four is bound to get some of the wrong kind of attention."

"Right." Dave asked "So it's true? The whole circuit board at age four-"

"V8 engine at age six, almost seven thing, yeah. Dad could be so oblivious, he didn't realize he was still setting money aside for a nanny until I was fourteen, mom kept putting it back but that obliviousness is how I was able to disappear to Attilan for my Terrigenesis Ceremony and undergo training to control my powers without dad even realizing I was missing. Mom didn't even get a chance to spin a cover story, dad spent the whole time lost in his own head."

"How bad was he really?"

"It was no secret, really. Dad's absentmindedness when it came to me was kinda hard to miss when he'd take me into the office and I'd be in the R&D labs for hours before he noticed. But boy genius, none of the staff minded. I'd go into the lab and make a whole slew of jumps, speeding up a few timetables then dad would remember he'd brought me in that day and go looking for me. Now imagine if I was normal?"

"I can't imagine it," said Louise.

"Yeah, fair enough."

Almost two hours and a half blew by with a lot of laughs before JARVIS had to interrupt with a reminder for Sir to head to the lab. Donning the armor, Tony waved and took off. As predicted, Maximus wanted to use Anthony to better secure himself on the throne. "You still haven't told me what happened. I'm terrible with cue cards, I don't want to go out there and talk about how tragic it is that the rest of our family is dead, only for you to cut in and correct me. So, are they dead?"

"No, they have fled."

"Even Triton?"

"He was the first."

"Dang. I always thought you would've been a good choice for the job they gave mom. You're smart, you coulda been like me and my dad and had women throwing themselves at you on Earth. I still don't get why you weren't chosen. You can't be totally, genetically human. Your closest human relative died over a thousand years ago. I mean, that's excluding my dad because he's only like your cousin-in-law, which doesn't affect your genes. Being of royal blood implies strong genes, that's why they chose mom. Y'know it just never made sense to me but a lot things up here don't. If you have the means to transport people to Earth, why not set up a colony on a deserted island and send your undesirables there?" Trap laid, he only had to wait a few days for Maximus to fall into it. During the exodus, Tony shoved Maximus through Eldrac right before the Living Door closed. "Thanks, man."

"Not a problem, Anthony."

"Call me Tony. Now, I got a call to make." He used his watch to call his phone and let Crystal know Maximus was out of the picture, advising her to gather the family at the farm and all come back together.

"How'd you do it?" asked Crystal.

"I suggested he send the lower caste to a deserted island and shoved him through the portal during the exodus. He's out of the way and nobody but Auran died and she doesn't count because she doesn't stay dead."

"Incredible."

Medusa and Black Bolt shared a knowing look before Medusa suggested Crystal stay with Tony, just to be safe, in case Maximus got off the island, she could warn them. Tony and Crystal saw through it and didn't care. "What do you think about Ames?"

"Ames?"

"As a last name for your human identity? It's closer to your actual last name than Collins or Carbonell was to mom's."

"Sounds good."

"Crystal Ames, I'll have that ready in no time."

"Sounds great." They were relaxing in Attilan for a bit, giving Lockjaw a chance to rest and the healers a chance to examine Karnak, confirming what Tony had said before fixing the problem.


	2. The Fantastic Four

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony is the Human Torch

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm picturing 2015 movie verse Reed, Sue and Ben not 2015 origins.

To the world, Tony Stark was engaged to Crystal Ames but now they were ready to come out as Inhumans and Tony was jittery. "You're not helping our anxiety, Tony."

He turned to his fiancé who was standing with Black Bolt and Medusa, "I asked my old team to join us but I haven't gotten a response so I don't know if they got the message. I was planning for us to go on first, provide enough of a distraction for the reporters to softball questions for you. If they don't show up, it'll be fine, I'll take the tough questions and talk them around, distract them."

James Rhodes joined them backstage "I don't think that'll be a problem, Tones." Two normal looking people and orange, rocky hulk followed him in.

"Reed, Sue, Ben." Tony ran over and greeted them then turned to his friend "Rhodey, would you mind doing the intro? Set up for the song."

"The P-"

"No," Tony pointed to the Inhumans "They've never heard it, let them hear the original first, well the last part anyway."

Rhodey held his hands up, "Alright, alright, will do." After he went on, Tony got the others into position. "I'm sure some of you have never heard this song but it was pretty big when I was in college and my friend Tony insisted so here goes," Some of the reporters recognized the music.

The chorus played, "No need to fear, they're here. Just call for Four, the Fantastic Four." As each member of the team was named in the song, they made their entrance. "Reed Richards is elastic," the brunette scientist bounced onto the stage. "Sue can fade from sight," the blond woman became visible hovering off to the side of the first man. "Johnny is the Human Torch," Tony did a loop de loop in the air before stopping on Reed's other side, mirroring Sue but with his arms crossed instead of held out at his sides. "The Thing just loves to fight," the rock man stomped on stage behind Reed, slamming his fists together. "Call for Four, Fantastic Four, Fantastic Four."

There was a moment of awed silence, both from the people who remembered the Four as urban legends and those who had never heard of them. Tony used his pyrokinesis to put the team's logo on his chest, having worn an plain suit to match his cousin Black Bolt's. The moment passed and the room filled with a flurry of camera flashes and overlapping voices. Reed, being both the leader and the member in front of the microphone stand, took questions for half of the allotted time before Sue gently cut him off. Three of the quartet moved to the side of the stage- their right, the reporters' left- while Tony landed and extinguished himself "Alright, now for the people you actually came here to see. Allow me to introduce King Black Bolt, Queen Medusa and Princess Crystal of the Inhuman nation of Attilan. You'll probably recognize at least one of them." The trio joined him on stage and Tony made a show of draping his arm over Crystal "Alright, before we take questions, my lovely fiance is going to give you guys some background on Inhumans in general and Attilan in particular." Tony subtly turned the mic off and whispered in Crystal's ear "Just like we practiced, don't give them any more than absolutely necessary, alright?" She took the mic and equally subtly turned it on, delivering a planned speech on Inhuman origins, history and society before passing it back to Tony. "One last quick thing, questions directed to the King will have to be answered by Queen Medusa because Terrigenesis rendered King Black Bolt effectively mute. And any questions that get yelled out will be ignored, even if we pick someone and they ask it, we'll just move on. We're not in sixth grade, I'm sure you all know how to be polite and grown up. Let me see those hands." Very few questions were addressed to the king and queen, reporters favoring the couple they knew and latching onto Crystal's mild deception. When they asked about her alias, she explained they just shortened her name. "Not just shortened but kinda."

"My name doesn't have two Ss in it, true."

"Not yet anyway." She grinned and the press ate it up. After the conference, Tony posed for pictures with each trio then led the six of them off stage. "That went well, although we'll have to get some more of the family PR training."

"Your plan worked, some reporters were still stuck on you being the Human Torch."

"Yeah. Uh," Tony saw his friends about to split and stopped them, "Congrats on getting married, I have a wedding gift for you guys. Ben, you're welcome to join unless you want to rejoin the army, although I don't get what good a secret weapon is when it's not a secret anymore."

"I'll come." They took the Avengers' jet to a building just a few blocks from the UN building they were in. Before lowering the ramp, Tony told his friends "I'll need each of you to say something when we get out, you'll see why." As the ramp lowered, he told his fellow inventor "Say hi to Herbie, Reed."

"Hi, Herbie."

A small robot flew up to greet them, speaking in a cheery voice "Dr. Richards, it is an honor to finally meet you."

Sue spoke next "Nice to meet you too, Herbie."

Ben was a bit more blunt as he turned to Tony "Reed and Suzie's wedding gift is a helper bot for Stretch."

Herbie spoke in a more serious monotone "Voice prints locked." Before reverting to his cheery self "Actually, Dr. Stark set aside this whole building in a trust for his fellow Fantastic Four members, note the logo under your feet."

Ben looked down "Oh, that makes more sense. Hiya, Herbie."

"Hello, Mr. Grimm or do you prefer Ben?"

"Ben's fine."

Sue added "And since I have two last names now, why don't we just stick to Sue."

When the pair turned to Reed, he said "Unlike you two, I'm used to being addressed by my last name but fine, if you prefer, Herbie, you can call me Reed. Just don't call me by any of Ben's nicknames, they're terrible."

"Okey-doke. Would you like a tour of your floors?"

Tony said "As much as I'd love to stay for that, I gotta get back to the Tower. I'll send some lawyers over to go over the paperwork involved in claiming the Baxter Building. Enjoy the tour but Reed,"

"Huh?"

"Leave the lab as soon as Herbie shows it to you. Herbie, maybe you should save the lab for last. Dr. Richards needs to pay attention to what the lawyers say since he and Sue will be the tenants' new landlords. Ben, talk to the lawyers when they get here to work out your legal status here. You'll need to sign something so that you're not considered a guest that can be kicked out at anytime but just what that is, I don't know since I intended this place to be a shared space. If I wasn't, y'know, Tony Stark then it could be the headquarters for the Fantastic Four but since I am, three out of four will have to do. Alright?" His friends nodded and Tony took off, taking his family back to the Tower to meet Lockjaw for transport back to Attilan. Crystal was still staying with him as his fiancé. Before Black Bolt and Medusa left, Tony showed them the video someone put together with the Fantastic Four theme song.

"That's how people saw you?"

"Well, they didn't see me, they saw a man on fire, a man made of stone, an elastic man and a woman who could turn invisible if you pointed a camera at her. With SHIELD as powerful as it was, we couldn't be anything more than urban legends but now it's out of the shadows of the past and into the light of the future."

"Awesome."


	3. Allies Needed

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Time to make amends

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Unlike with the others, I'm leaning towards 2005 casting for Doctor Doom
> 
> In this Namor is an honorable, if sometimes impulsive, man. Kind of like MCU T'Challa

Tony went over the Fantastic Four's exploits with Crystal, looking for possible allies in their old enemies. "Doom's an option, I'd have to approach him without the team and possibly low key threaten him but since he's retired to Latveria, he's proven himself a rather reasonable man. We'll need a way to keep him away from Reed."

"That shouldn't be too hard."

"No, keeping Reed distracted is easy but Doom's sorta had a crush on Sue that he dealt with in mind boggling ways."

"Sue has a son, think Doom will mess with that?"

"Possibly but if he hasn't made any moves against Reed and Sue since shortly after the band broke up, and the data suggests he hasn't, then he's probably mellowed out. Next, Namor."

"Atlantis is real?"

"Yeah, I've actually talked to Namor a handful of times since the Four broke up. He still calls me Johnny but I think he knew before the announcement. Namor's favorite words back in the day were Imperius Rex, which is an Atlantean battle cry. He's definitely mellowed out but I still say we keep him away from unmarried women, even you, if we all have to get together to finalize plans or whatever. Namor will not go for a married woman so his infatuation with Sue shouldn't be a problem."

"Did all of your bad guys want to marry Sue?"

"No, but now that I'm thinking about it, a fair few did. Namor and Doom both have armies, although Doom probably won't risk his living one so looks like we'll have an Iron Legion at our backs after all. Moving on, Mole Man. Why is Mole Man on the list?" Tony turned to Crystal, "Mole Man didn't want Sue, he wanted to expand his subterranean kingdom because his people were outgrowing the space."

"Finally someone who wasn't a perv."

"Oh, no. First off, we were all above the age of consent. Second, the mind boggling ways Doom dealt with his crush amounted to 'If I kill Reed then Sue will be mine' and a lot of kidnapping to lure Reed into very convoluted traps."

"Oh."

"Namor's kind of my fault, I was trying to be a good Samaritan and set a good example for the kids who loved the Fantastic Four, be a role model, y'know. I was really bad at it and told Namor how a lot of guys were drawn to my 'sister'. In my defense, I was talking to an amnesiac homeless Namor. We fixed the amnesiac part but then he found his home bombed to Hell, went a little Imperius Rex on the surface world, Sue tried to talk him down and even I get confused after that but he somehow went from 'you will all pay for destroying Atlantis' to 'Sue will be my queen'. Again, it was like killing the rest of us was a stepping stone to securing Sue's love. They're crazy but Namor found his people had survived and moved and it seems like he's mellowed out. He's actually matured to the point that he talked my drunk ass off the ledge. I wasn't suicidal, I was just a stupid drunk. Got a bit of deja vu when I sobered up because Namor didn't recognize me as Johnny the Human Torch or Tony Stark the billionaire, I was a nobody to him the same way he'd been a nobody to me all those years ago."

"Aw, so they probably won't go after Sue?"

"They'll probably accept she's a married mother and thus off limits. Mole Man will only be helpful if we fight at night but maybe I could help him expand his kingdom, there's gotta be a place with either an unused system of caves or a lot of abandoned underground infrastructure like subway tunnels and stuff. I'll have to think on that but during the day, he's useless."

"Okay."

"To be clear, Namor and Doom weren't pervs. They never forced Sue into anything intimate or sexual or stalked her- Namor might've but I doubt it because he needs to split his time between breathing air and water to retain his stability since his father was human."

"Oh."

"And they're both better now, I think. I was a teenager when the Fantastic Four were active, we've all aged and hopefully matured."

"Right. Next?"

JARVIS was going through the records Tony and Reed made of their exploits and the next candidate was "The Super Skrulls? Seriously, what makes you think they'd be open to it and don't say it's their planet too?"

JARVIS said, "That was my primary argument. Furthermore, the Super Skrulls appear to have settled on Earth. A simple negotiation with the UN to garner asylum should be incentive enough to secure their support."

"If they don't kill us for killing Kl'rt." To Crystal, he added "It was a freaking accident. Super Skrulls have all of our powers plus shapeshifting because Skrulls are an alien race of shapeshifters. Kl'rt liked to pick fights with us, trying to prove he was better than us and often implying we were templates for his added powers. We took him down and ran to avoid being killed, he never came after anyone again. Reed was the one to discover that Kl'rt never left the building that had been falling down around us. This wasn't long before we broke up. After Kl'rt, we were never the same." Tony sighed "I never told the others where I got my powers but at one point or another they shared their origins, it just happened that I had come from telling Gorgon he would never see his sister again to meet up with my team when they confronted me about it. I guess I should probably tell them that I had gone from informing my uncle his sister was dead to our final meet-up but I don't want to accidentally guilt trip them."

"Tony,"

"Anyway, I doubt the Super Skrulls will forgive us."

JARVIS said "You never know unless you try but I shall put that suggestion back in the pile." They went through the rest of the list, Tony having a more visceral reaction to some than others and sharing stories about some more than others. JARVIS scheduled meetings according to who Tony wanted with him, holding off on contacting the Four's former foes until their current allies verified their availability.

Doom saw the Avengers Quinjet headed his way and made sure to be in his throne room, having requested the Four be in attendance for the meeting. Tony greeted him in a formal respectful manner, including introductions for his teammates and fiancé, then informed Doom "Sue's got a young son at home so if it's all the same to you, I'd like to keep this short. I emailed you all the details but the short version is: the Battle of New York was only the beginning and I need to know who I can count as an ally for the next invasion."

"I will review the data and get back to you."

"Great, so we're good to go?" Doom nodded and they left, aboard the jet, Tony said "Not to sound like a Staples commercial but that was easy. J? Any chance we move up Namor?"

"King Namor is currently at your usual meeting place."

"Right, that's where he goes to get the air he needs to stay mentally stable. Sue, you'll probably get an apology from him, he'll probably laugh in my face but at which one of us, him or me, I'm not sure."

"You've talked to him, recently?"

"JARVIS made the appointments but yeah, over the years, Namor and I have had our chats. Key to dodging paparazzi is not to throw a hat and sunglasses on, it's just to throw random shit on, works every time. Namor's a bit more sane these days but that's not saying much and I haven't actually seen him in years. Pretty sure you haven't seen him in decades and not to be rude but I'm starting to wonder if your aging's been frozen."

Reed said, "Dude, you look life you're locked in your 20s."

"The average lifespan for a pureblood Inhuman like Crystal is 150 years. Mom's strong Inhuman genes led her to be selected to go out into the human world and find someone to expand the gene pool with, AKA my father. Whatever else she did with her life, nobody cared about. She was using makeup long before I was born to keep up with dad's physical aging but to be fair to dad, she was five years younger than she claimed to be."

"Oh crap," Sue said "I just realized your parents died around the same time we split up."

"Yeah. Imagine having to attend those funerals and telling your mother's family that they can't have their own. I don't know if my uncle had some kind of ceremony but if he did, it didn't include mom's body or her grave."

"I'm sorry."

"Let's focus on the future, shall we?"

JARVIS spoke up from where he was piloting the jet "We are nearing your usual rendezvous point with King Namor."

As predicted, Namor laughed in Tony's face, finding the fact that he failed to recognize the man several times when he wasn't even on fire or using hair dye endlessly amusing. To Sue, he delivered a heartfelt apology, citing his mental instability while insisting there was no excuse for his behavior. Reed, he lightly glared at even as he called him the better man and wished Sue a lifetime of happiness. Ben, he just sort of ignored. Crystal got a chivalrous greeting when she was introduced but when he began to make her uncomfortable, Crystal threw a hand behind her back and a column of stone shot up out of the water at the cove's entrance, demonstrating her power to make Namor back off without saying a word. "You are a very lucky man, Tony Stark, as are you, Reed Richards. What do you five want?"

"Did you hear about the invasion I was warning people about in 2012?"

"Years work a bit differently in Atlantis, we have our own calendar, but yes. If you get Atlantis recognized as a nation and get representatives on all international bodies that govern oversea trade then you will have our support."

"I can't guarantee a place on all governing bodies but if you're willing to work with me, I can help you secure statehood in the UN and you can make moves for those committees and councils and whatever else they're called but you have to be willing to compromise, inch your way towards your goals by making humans think it's their idea."

"Fair enough."

"I'll have JARVIS play messenger, keep you apprised of the situation so you're ready when it's time to present Atlantis to the UN."

"Once we have statehood then we can begin working on a formal alliance."

"Do you know the locations of a lot of these isolated coves? Like maybe some uncharted ones with deeper caves?" 

"For Mole Man?"

"He has a kingdom to care for too and his people are probably endangered now but JARVIS has reason to believe they're not entirely extinct."

"Send him this way."

"One, can't do that since he's not my subordinate. Two, as a side effect of spending his life underground, Mole Man can't stand sunlight. Three, I just need a location I can pass on through JARVIS to get his people to safety."

"I don't know the coordinates but I suppose I could show JARVIS where to look and he could pass on the location to Mole Man."

"Thank you, King Namor. We'll leave you alone, if that's all right." Namor nodded just as Doom had. "Those two were easy, let's go three for three and approach the Skrulls."

"Tony, are we going to negotiate with all of our former enemies?"

"The living retired supervillains, yes. The Enhanced need to present a united front, Sue, and that means everyone not just heroes."

"Fine."

"Besides, there's an island near New Attilan that I'm thinking of offering the Super Skrulls. If they set up camp there then I can falsify records to say I tracked them there from our last fight, giving them a pretty good platform to argue for statehood as alien refugees. My Inhuman status might help us if the Super Skrulls still consider themselves enemies of the Kree."

"Fine but this is the last one for today."

"This is last one period for you. The Super Skrulls might demand an apology for our, in hindsight, occasionally unprovoked attacks." His plan worked, although getting Reed to genuinely apologize was a lot harder than it should've been. JARVIS altered the plans for most of the rest to exclude Tony from the initial approach, giving Sir more time with Princess Crystal, who was great at getting him to keep a healthy sleep schedule. Attilan law kept them from doing more than sleeping and even sharing a bed for that was pushing the boundaries.


	4. Rise and Fall of the Four

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Four commiserate and revelations are had

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As Johnny, Tony lied about his age

When Johnny Storm was on the cusp of turning 19, his team- the Fantastic Four- accidentally killed their deadliest enemy. They weren't positive that the Super Skrull was dead but he had vanished, meaning if he survived their last fight then he was as good as dead because they didn't think to pull him out. Tony Stark was 17 when his parents died and he had to find a way to contact his mother's family, 17 when he told Gorgon that Myrra was gone. Tony Stark's greatest weakness was his inflated sense of guilt.

After talking to the Super Skrulls, who refused his offer of an island because they were waiting for a regular Skrull named Talos to come pick them up and take them to their new homeworld, Sue insisted that Tony and Crystal spend the night at the Baxter. Upon arriving, she dragged Reed to their shared room and had a talk with him while "Uncle Tony" and "Uncle Ben" watched little Franklin. Once that was settled, the Four (plus Crystal and Franklin) settled in for a family game night to unwind from seeing their old enemies. Tony seemed to be the least affected and that made sense, as Reed was quick to point out, because it had been years not decades since he last saw their old rivals (he made sure not to say enemies because Franklin was present and Sue would not be pleased if he got Ben talking about the glory days around their impressionable son- nor would Ben for that matter). The truth was, Doom was retired as was Namor and Tony had only seen them in passing since the Human Torch and the Fantastic Four vanished. The Super Skrulls were another matter. The revelation about Tony's parents made things tense, too tense to talk. Tony designed the living quarters so each of the Four could have their own custom space but most of the building went unrenovated when he bought it.

Ben put Franklin to bed, giving Sue a chance to talk to Tony "Why did you buy this building in particular?"

"It was for sale and didn't need much work to accommodate us. A year of renovations, occasional updates here and there," Tony shrugged "This place has been waiting for you guys since I was old enough to drink, maybe even longer."

"You included a room for yourself."

"I know, we're the Fantastic Four and I set this place up long before the Avengers. In case you missed it, I was somewhere between 18 and 21 when I got this place set up."

"Oh, thanks." Sue said "Not to sound ungrateful but-"

"Why did I never contact you?"

"Yeah."

"To be honest, it had nothing to do with you, it was me. I spiraled after my parents died, only managed to keep my secret because for a while, I sorta forgot I was the Human Torch, much less Inhuman. I never tried to use my powers while I had the Arc Reactor but yeah, it was like I was Rhodey not me."

"You did your best to forget."

"Yeah. Still, managed to set this place up but for a long time, I couldn't let go of that night. For a brief time, immediately after, it felt personal, because my parents' deaths were front page news everywhere, but then I remembered that you honestly didn't know who I was and the pain from that kinda went away but I could never go back to you guys. Mom made sure I knew that I could never tell anyone what I was, warned me about SHIELD by warning me about Peggy Carter. Ironically, those warnings led me to find you guys on the Gifted watchlist."

"I remember Ben said, and I don't think you were there when he said it, that you helped him disappear from Men In Black types."

"I was there, he was backing me up about SHIELD. I did that by blinding them and directing him to take a shortcut to what would become our base. A bright light in their night vision goggles was the last thing the SHIELD agents saw. By the time they could see clearly, we were gone. Reed was even more absentminded when I approached him, if you can believe that's possible."

"I am right here."

"Be honest, Reed, how long do you think you would've lasted if we hadn't come into the picture? How long before you accidentally used your powers in front of a baseline, exposing yourself?"

"Fair point. Do you want an actual answer?"

"You can't give me an exact answer to a hypothetical so no."

Sue said "Boys! I don't know which persona is worse, Johnny or Tony."

"They're not that different."

"What about me?"

"You couldn't make forcefields so you bundled up to hide your occasional bouts of invisibility, how long before you gave yourself heatstroke and SHIELD found you in a delirious state?"

"Okay so you recruited us, got it."

"No. My original goal wasn't to be a superhero. I hated that my people, my mom's people got to live in their Utopia while other people just like us were hunted down, tagged, caged, put down or dissected. My original goal was just to protect people from something my father unintentionally helped create. Dad could be very oblivious and mom used that to her advantage, she tried to scare Peggy Carter off by revealing she knew Peggy dumped the last surviving sample of Steve Rogers' blood, implying Edwin Jarvis told her. Peggy wasn't going to move against me but she used the threat of doing just that to make dad keep supporting SHIELD, keep funding us or we'll take Tony away and make him an agent, all because I built a circuit board when I was four."

"Oh my god."

"I wanted to protect you guys but you took my warning the wrong way. You guys decided to be heroes, well, we all did to be honest but that wasn't my original goal." Tony saw Ben return and asked "Did anyone else get flashbacks to our last fight or was it just me?" Reed, as usual, raised his hand to the ceiling when he joined the others in indicating he had a flashback. "Yeah. I just realized why I can't forget it, it- Kl'rt shouldn't have died. My mind fixates on things that don't make sense, that's why the image never changes when I get triggered."

Reed asked "What are you talking about?"

"Super Skrulls have all of our powers. Fire can't kill me, you guys have each survived a building falling on you. Any two of us could've survived that and Kl'rt went down too easy, he was our deadliest enemy and he went down easier than Mole Man."

"Maybe it wasn't Kl'rt but some other Super Skrull," suggested Reed.

"But we didn't use lethal force. All this time, we've been blaming ourselves for collapsing the building but-" Tony had a flashback to that "We didn't do that either. We were all together when the first wall went down, none of us took it down. Remember,"

"Yeah, I remember the wall started to come down and you yelled 'trap!'"

"And you said 'Quiet Johnny' then I asked if the Super Skrull,"

"Had teamed up with Doom," continued Sue.

"I asked 'does it really matter flamebrain?' and we got into one of our fights," finished Ben. "The collapse wasn't our fault and that wasn't Kl'rt we was fighting. What really happened?"

"Herbie, can you access the leaked SHIELD files?" asked Tony.

"Uh, why isn't he working?" asked Ben.

"He is, I made Reed the admin since Herbie's his lab assistant first."

"Oh," Reed spoke to the room, "Herbie, can you come here?" The little helper bot flew into the room. "Can you access the leaked SHIELD files?"

"Certainly, which files should I focus my search on?" In unison, the Four recited the date, time and place of their last fight. "On it." Herbie spoke to Crystal as an aside, "That was strange, right?"

"Yes, Herbie and they can hear you."

"Oh my."

Reed smiled "It's fine, Herb. We were all just thinking of our last fight."

"A fight you say?"

"Yeah but it might be listed as a fire," said Sue. "Get as close as you can to the original search parameters, the information might have been purposefully entered wrong."

"Of course, Sue."

"Wow, I built him and he's smarter than I thought, can already tell Sue's the boss."

"But isn't Dr. Richards the leader of the Fantastic Four?" asked Herbie. "Also, I got the results you were looking for, pulling them up now."

"It's complicated. Think about it this way, Reed listens to Sue, thus setting an example for Ben and I to follow."

"Ah, that makes perfect sense. Should I call you Tony or Johnny?"

"Either or, just not Mr. Storm or Dr. Stark, okay?"

"Why certainly, Johnny. I think I'll go with Johnny."

"Sounds good." The files proved the Four's greatest mistake wasn't on them but the damage had been done, the only true change was in how much attention the team paid to the SHIELD files.


	5. Tony’s Girl

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Set between the first 2 chapters. Pietro tries and fails to get Crystal's attention. Maybe he even gets told off for going after Tony's girl

Princess Crystal easily settled into life as Crystal Ames with JARVIS forging and altering records as needed. As far as Tony's friends were concerned, they met while Tony was dressed down and hiding in plain sight to escape the stress of being Tony fucking Stark. "Do you ever feel tempted to tell the truth?"

"Rhodey knows about my powers from my time as the Human Torch. I also figured out during that time how dangerous my secret could be for those who know. Nothing has ever come of it but it's the thought that counts y’know?"

"Yeah."

Seeing how the Avengers treated Tony made Crystal's blood boil. She was sorely tempted to fry them but she had to follow his example and keep her powers a secret. When the Maximoff twins were brought to the Tower, she almost lost it, especially when Pietro tried to flirt with her. Instead, she stormed over to her boyfriend and whispered in his ear, "How's your head?"

"Fine," he leaned into her slight touch while Rogers warned Pietro to stay away from "Tony's girl" proving himself to be the height of misogyny. Upon hearing she was "with Stark", it was like a switch was flipped and Pietro instantly began to hate her.

Crystal had an idea "How long was the scepter in Sokovia?"

"I dunno." Tony pulled up the files they recovered "He's probably set up shop there."

Crystal moved over to the Cradle and leaned on it, watching the room to make sure her power use wasn't visible as she jump started it for her beloved. The result was a bit complicated but as Vision himself said he is "on the side of life. Ultron isn't, he will end it all." Vision was immensely helpful but the Avengers were ultimately useless as Crystal went ahead with Lockjaw and fried Ultron's machines before the 'team' got close to Sokovia's sovereign borders.

She saw Romanoff and kept walking, catching Bruce on his way in. "How'd you get here?"

Taking a chance, Crystal said "I'll show you." She took the only Avenger she could stand back to the Tower via Lockjaw. "I can't explain any of it, you'll have to be patient. Can you do that?"

"Yeah, I think I can." Bruce smiled nervously at Lockjaw, "Nice doggie."

"His name is Lockjaw and he's a very good boy." Bruce came out of his shell a bit to pet the dog with her, relaxing a bit. "The Avengers do not have an easy fight ahead but Ultron's doomsday weapon is down and that's all that matters to me."

"Really?"

"Can't explain, remember?"

"Right."

"I think Romanoff's a glorified honeypot, she's getting close to you to control the Hulk and using her very limited skill set to do it."

"Right, thanks for letting me know."

"You're the only Avenger I can stand, the only one who doesn't abuse Tony. Ultron can destroy the others for all I care."

"You only care about me and Tony?"

"Yup."

"That's comforting, I think."

"Tony's lawyers are building a case against all of the others, except Thor. I think you should talk to them about Ross, give them someone to practice on. Tony keeps chickening out on asking you to talk to them but they're ready when you are."

"Really? That's good to know."

"They need testimony, Tony's given them everything else but without testimony, it won't mean anything."

"Thanks. I'll, when can I meet them?"

"Tomorrow. Let's talk to Pepper tonight since J's, y'know?"

"Yeah."

The Avengers won but they brushed off Romanoff's claims that Crystal was there and took Bruce. Tony claimed he had a suit waiting to pick the Big Guy up and that he must've used it when the shooting started. Unfortunately, both twins survived the fight. Tony sent them to a Compound up-state and on the advice of his two best girls (Pepper and Crystal) set them up with an account to pay the bills before having his lawyers record the signing over of the Avengers Compound, washing his hands of his abusers and getting more proof for when they inevitably fucked up enough that there would be no escaping justice. He also announced his retirement from the team alongside Bruce, letting the public know about the two of them and SI cutting ties with the Avengers. Just after the conference, he felt lighter somehow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The bit about the money came from Krafter2014's Finances. Check it out here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14895251


	6. Ego

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> And I don't mean the Living Planet

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I made a slight error in using feminine pronouns for Pulsus, who Google search reveals is a male Inhuman. I've since made changes to fix that but let me know if I made any more errors

Crystal, Gorgon and Tony sat down with INTERPOL, the agency having won/lost the fight over who would take care of the Avengers (soon to Exvengers). None of the Inhumans were exactly sure how jurisdiction was determined for this but they all assumed nobody wanted the job. Logically, the international police force would have to handle it because the Avengers operated internationally. "The plan is simple," Tony said "Attilan's Royal Guard has experience detaining superhumans so they'll actually slap on the cuffs and hand Rogers' lot over to you. I'm the bait and since we're using Attilan's reintegration to set the trap, Crystal will be with me. I'd like to give Barton and Wilson a chance, I suspect Wanda Maximoff messed with Barton's head and I blame propaganda for Wilson's involvement. Crystal and I will talk to them, see if we can talk them down, have them turn themselves in after the others are in custody in exchange for a plea deal."

The leader of the INTERPOL team agreed to his strategy, their intel suggested the two men could be reasonable (Wilson more than Barton and the archer did seem to change after the Maximoffs entered the picture). Crystal added "Be prepared for slippery floors, I'm not letting them within striking distance of Tony and soaking Romanoff will make the Widow Bites useless unless she wants to electrocute herself, and that's assuming she's had the good sense to ration them after Tony pulled his support, which I doubt."

The lead agent cleared his throat "You are willing and able to testify against the former Avengers, correct?"

"Yeah, if you need my testimony. You have video of everything I was witness to as well as a lot of footage of their more serious crimes." Crystal reminded them "Be careful who you allow access to the women on the team, they're both skilled manipulators."

"Of course."

"I think we're all set."

Tony approached Wilson and informed him that INTERPOL had warrants for his arrests, patiently walking the man through his list of crimes and informing him that he would be given a chance to turn himself in shortly. Crystal took Lockjaw to the Barton farm and had him distract the little ones while she sat Laura and Clint down to explain the archer's situation and his options. Both men proved extremely reasonable and allowed the Inhumans to block their teammates' numbers on their phones, although Romanoff was liable to attempt a face to face approach.

Tony and Crystal were chatting in a hallway when the Avengers came storming in, completely oblivious to Gorgon and his Royal Guard posted around the room. Everyone had been notified the second that the soon-to-be Exvengers entered the building and Crystal covered the floor by their entry point in water with a wave of her hand. Predictably, their situational awareness was practically non-existent and they didn't notice the water until they had fallen like bowling pins. Crystal dumped more water on top of them a moment before Gorgon pulled a shivering Steve Rogers to his feet, disarmed him and cuffed him while members of the Royal Guard did the same with the Maximoff twins and Romanoff. When Rogers demanded to know "What was that for?" in regards to the water, Crystal smirked.

"Water conducts," answered the princess.

Romanoff proved her arrogance when she agreed "My Bites are useless like this."

"Wow," Pulsus couldn't help commenting, stunned by the sheer stupidity and ego.

Tony informed the electric Inhuman, "And she says I have an ego." Pulsus snapped out of his stupor, assuming a professional mask once more. Unlike Auran, Pulsus had been allowed to keep his position with the Guard because Tony vouched for him and Bronaja, claiming both were acting under duress. He would never be assigned to guard the Queen but he could still serve in other capacities since the Royal Guard was also Attilan's police and military force.

Mindful of the water, INTERPOL agents took charge of the Exvengers. Once they were out but before the doors closed, Tony blasted the puddle, evaporating the water without damaging the floor then turned and went in the opposite direction of his former teammates, the Royal Guard moving into formation around him and Crystal. The two absent members received an automated call to turn themselves in and did as ordered. Gorgon returned to Attilan with the Guard while Tony, Crystal and Lockjaw retired to the Baxter. Tony was seriously considering retiring the Avengers name and coming up with something else to replace them. Bruce and Vision could start their own team with some other superheroes and Tony could rejoin his original team, there was nothing tying them to the Avengers, name or team. He was seriously contemplating it and took the opportunity to broach the subject after telling his three friends about the Exvengers' arrest. Ben said "Avengers was a stupid name."

"No, it wasn't." Tony said "I did some digging, Fury stole the name. There was this woman named Carol Danvers, she got caught up in the Kree-Skrull War after the Kree sent one of their scientists to Earth to develop a super-weapon and she made a refugee ship for the enemy instead. In the Air Force, Carol's call sign was Avenger. Carol left Earth after taking out her Kree Starforce unit to help the Skrulls find a new homeworld so the name is good, great origin but Fury ruined it being an egotistical control freak. A drama king who thinks himself a super spy, sound familiar?"

"Yeah."

"The name's good but it's tainted now."

"Alright, alright. I just think that it don't fit what yous guys were supposed to be."

Crystal cut off another argument by asking "What do you think they should be called?"

"Defenders or somethin' like dat."

"Defenders, sounds good. I'll ask Bruce and Viz what they think, I already got my own team right here."

Sue asked "Does this mean you're moving in?"

"Yeah, soon-ish. I still have to go over some things with Bruce, Viz and Pepper but this was always intended as the headquarters of the Fantastic Four not the Terrific Three."

"That's right," agreed Reed, surprising Tony with his attentiveness.


	7. Watchdogs

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> An attack on a gala reveals a new speedster in town

In retaliation for his work against Ellen Nadeer and in light of the revelation that he himself was Inhuman, the Watchdogs planned an attack on Tony Stark. They chose to strike during a gala welcoming Attilan to the UN, which was open to all Inhumans as a sign of good will. Reed Richards was near the door when the Watchdogs burst through and he immediately went on the defensive, stretching to try to block any shots. A gust of wind preceded the disappearance of the terrorists' guns, a second gust in the opposite direction saw them stripped of their remaining weapons. Tony smiled, turning around as Vijay Nadeer dropped grenades and handguns on top of a pile of machine guns. Offering his hand, he said "Nice work."

Vijay moved forward in a blur of motion, shaking the inventor's hand "Thanks."

"Any interest in joining the Defenders? I could put in a good word with War Machine for you." He looked down at Vijay's feet, where frayed pantlegs met bare skin, "Definitely gonna make you a super suit either way."

Vijay looked down, letting go of Tony's hand in the process. "That'd be appreciated."

"No problem. How about Speed Demon?"

"For a codename?"

"No, for a breakfast cereal. Yes, for a codename."

"Who'd eat Demon Flakes?"

"Satanists." "You'd be surprised." Two voices answered at once as Reed and Sue joined them, each taking a moment to shake Vijay's hand. The various security teams and federal agents had already secured the terrorists.

"If we were open to new members, I'd ask you to join our team but we're pretty set at Four, which is why I offered to put in a good word with the Defenders. Do you want me to do that or just make the suit?"

"Do that, see if they want me. How long did it take you to get control?"

"Basic control, a few days, I kept getting excited, even spontaneously combusted a few times. Perfect control, that took weeks. I can light myself on fire, fly, conjure flames without bursting into flames and shape the flames. You seem to be a speedster, which I assume comes with its own set of challenges but never let it be said I'm afraid of a challenge."

Sue revealed "Tony actually taught the rest of us to control our powers."

Reed said "I also had trouble not using my powers without thinking. We'll try to help."

"Sounds good," said Vijay before the three superheroes' phones all went off at the same time.

Tony showed Crystal the message before gesturing to Reed and Sue, the Inhuman princess said "Follow me," then took off out of the room, the couple running after her.

Tony turned to Vijay and explained "Family emergency."

"You guys are all-"

"There's a reason people thought I was Sue's brother, we're what you'd call a found family."

"Right."

"C'mon, let's step outside and make that call to Colonel Rhodes." Vijay followed him out the same door the other three had left through. "Hey, Jim."

"Tony?" The other man sounded suspicious.

"Are the Defenders still accepting new applicants?"

"Yeah. Got a suggestion?"

"Vijay Nadeer, an Inhuman speedster. I was thinking you could do what Rogers was supposed to do with Pietro, train him up and make him part of the team but instead of Quicksilver, we were thinking of Speed Demon as a name. He still needs a super suit but he's open to the idea if you are."

"Is he with you right now?"

"Yeah, you're on speaker."

"Bring him to the Tower after the party and we'll talk more then." Jim directed his next words at Vijay "You got a place to crash, Speed Demon?"

"Yeah."

"Would you rather meet in the morning?"

"Now's good. I kinda want to move out, my current place has bad memories."

"Tony, take me off speaker and give Vijay the phone."

"You got it." Tony zoned out while Vijay was on the phone, knowing 'take me off speaker' meant 'I wanna talk in private'. Vijay returned the phone and told Tony he could handle the rest, thanking him for making the call. When Crystal came back, the Inhuman Royal Family went home, Crystal and Tony returning to the Baxter last, knowing that jumping between Earth and the moon was tiring for Lockjaw.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have a few ideas for future chapters, I want to know what you guys think. Which one should go first?  
> Crystal babysits Franklin so the Four can train, Reed only mentioning they can't hire human babysitter as an explanation for why they've been slacking off (neglecting to inform the babysitter that his son is a reality bender)  
> Carol meets with the Royal Family to update them on the Kree and let them know that their creators/mortal enemies are desperate in the face of Thanos, possibly briefing them on Hive  
> Namor calls Tony because a human ship is making him feel threatened (maybe it's a nuclear sub or maybe he thinks it's targeting Atlantis- maybe it even is) and Tony makes a point of calling him King Namor to keep him calm as he reasons with the hybrid  
> Which one do you want to see next? Could I go somewhere else with this? Lemme know


	8. Diplomacy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Namor calls Tony because a HYDRA ship is threatening Atlantis

Tony got a pass from training to handle an issue with Atlantis and a few submarines. Luckily he already had deep sea armor from taking the Tower off the grid. Still, he hated leaving his friends like this. Reed and Sue had to leave Franklin with Crys instead of Ben because the Four needed team training. "King Namor," calling his former foe by his title and showing him due respect was always a good first step towards de-escalating the situation.

"Iron Man."

"Could you do that air bubble trick so I can get out of the suit? King Namor, I just want to talk." The hybrid nodded and Tony stepped out of the armor. Catching Namor's look of disdain at his Fantastic Four suit, he explained "I was on my way to team training. All I was told when I got called in was that you were threatening human ships but the threatening looks mutual. Care to explain, King Namor?"

Namor pointed to one ship in particular "The surface dwellers started it."

"King Namor, I need more information. I have no idea what makes that ship special. Could you perhaps give me a play by play?"

"That ship attacked my people, I responded and they summoned back up."

"No, King Namor, they sent out a distress call. Maritime law required the other ships to render aid and they made assumptions based on what they saw upon arrival. If you let me get back in the suit, I can send the aid ships away." Namor nodded and Tony retreated into the suit "King Namor is willing to let all but the ship he pointed to go. You're all violating his sovereign borders, either leave or I will and you can all be responsible for World War 3. Atlantis versus the surface isn't a very fair fight and you can bet Attilan, Wakanda and Latveria will all maintain neutrality along with most of your superheroes. Just beat it, guys and leave the ship he pointed to," Tony read off the name. Grudgingly, the others withdrew. "Don't even think of firing on Atlantis from a safe distance, be smart and avoid the unnecessary war." He left the suit as soon as they were gone, almost drowning for a split second as Namor was no longer creating an air bubble. "Let's check out the attacking ship together before some surly submarine captain sends out a false report and gets permission to engage." Tony was careful to avoid alienating either side of this small conflict. A contingent of Atlantean soldiers with breathing equipment accompanied Namor and Tony as they boarded the ship, going straight for the bridge where the humans faced the Atlanteans without fear, the bravado seemed familiar to Tony and a quick investigation into their computers revealed why. "I'm out."

Namor followed him out of the room "What is it?"

"This is a HYDRA ship, they're probably trying to provoke you into a war as a fucking distraction because HYDRA's manipulative and stupid like that. Need proof? Look at Wanda Maximoff, Red Skull or Project Insight. I am not helping fucking HYDRA. I am out. Since you followed me, would you mind helping me get back in my armor without drowning?"

"Yes." Tony had just given Namor the freedom to do with the humans what he wished. "Let your comrades know what we found."

"Will do." Tony summoned the suit to the hatch and left, giving his report over coms on the way back to the Baxter.


	9. Meetings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Crystal and Tony nearly miss a meeting of the Royal Family, but for good reason

Crystal and Tony hurried to Lockjaw, already super late for a meeting with the rest of their family. "Where were you two?" asked Medusa when they arrived in the throne room.

"I was in Atlantis talking King Namor down from World War Three while the rest of my team went ahead to the Compound for team training. Reed and Sue's son is a reality bender so they can't hire a normal babysitter, Crystal volunteered and training ran over."

"A reality bender?" echoed Medusa as Crystal turned to Tony "You knew!"

"I thought you did too, Reed and Sue are always debating the ethics of Franklin's power use." Then Tony realized something "I guess it often sounds hypothetical or like Reed created something dangerous in the lab."

"Yeah."

"What'd he do?"

"He conjured pink bunnies."

"Did he undo it on his own?"

"Yes."

"Good, we should tell Reed and Sue. They're trying to teach him that as awesome as the stuff he makes may be, his changes could have serious consequences. Well, Sue is, Reed's trying to track the development of his powers. And if we'd known you didn't know, we would have told you, we all thought you knew." Tony refocused them "What did we miss?"

"Carol Danvers got a lot of files from the Kree, apparently they're panicking because of Thanos and are trying to get her protection," answered Gorgon before asking "What else has Franklin made with his powers?"

"Honestly, I don't know. What I do know is that Franklin once accidentally aged himself into adulthood, which is how Reed knows his son's power is going to grow. One could argue Franklin is already the most powerful person on the planet, present company included, and his powers are still developing, which is a scary thought. I've asked Reed about his son's powers and he went off on a tangent, several actually, Sue is the only person I know who can get Reed to focus enough for him to actually make sense. Ben's done it before but Sue only has to tell him to focus once, Ben has to keep interrupting him to get him back on track. I'm sure Reed knows his son's current power levels but communicating that information is kind of a big ask."

"Franklin said that Ben calls him a reality bender and you call him a mutant," Crystal prompted.

"The way I see it, Sue, Reed and Ben are mutates because their DNA was mutated by outside forces. Because of that, Franklin was born with mutated DNA, making him a mutant. Reed knew their kid was gonna have powers. From what I pieced together of what he said when I asked about Franklin's powers, Franklin was a normal baby. Reed was actually surprised by how normal baby Franklin was. Can you imagine an infant with reality bending powers?"

"That's a scary thought," said Karnak.

"We should ask Sue for an explanation when we get back, Reed's attempt at an explanation was just confusing."

"Right," agreed Crystal before refocusing them herself "Did Carol translate the files?"

Tony pulled his phone out "She did and she also put the originals in the database, shouldn't be too hard to create a translator for text. From there, I could just ask her to fix my grammar and provide a phonetic alphabet to get a complete translator."

"Why?" asked Crystal. "Why would we need that?"

"Now, I could be totally off about this but the Kree are an empire. English, as a language, is very common thanks to England's imperial age. Not only were they forcing their language on conquered peoples, trading partners and close allies learned the language. Again, I could be very wrong but the logic does seem to track that an alien empire would similarly spread their language. An English to Kree translator could be used to communicate with potential alien allies better than any Earth language, since Earth is a rather isolated planet."

"Oh, right."

"I'll ask Carol before I try to make a translator," Tony pocketed his phone, "Hive's the issue. If the Kree are panicking enough to call upon their enemy for aid, they might try to get control of Inhumans again. You know the story Earth Inhumans tell of one of the first Inhumans who developed a God complex and was banished through a Kree artifact to another world? Yeah, totally true."

"You have proof?" asked Karnak.

"I found the artifact, sort of. The last known location of the Kree Monolith was aboard a SHIELD aircraft carrier called the Iliad. Director Fury gave Agent Morse orders to sink the ship during the mess with HYDRA. Far as I can tell, she didn't do it. I'd like to take Triton with me to talk to King Namor, let him know he cannot sink that ship under any circumstances until we remove the alien artifact. We don't know what would happen if the Monolith found itself at the bottom of the ocean, given it is a portal to another planet."

"Right."

Triton avoided asking the obvious question so Tony answered it anyway to spare him the embarrassment "Namor is king of Atlantis, an undersea kingdom and as such, it would be much less problematic to bring someone who can breathe underwater rather than someone who can be mistaken for a surface dweller, which is their word for human."

"Makes sense," agreed the aquatic Inhuman.

"Yeah but we can't do it today. A HYDRA ship already tried to attack Atlantis, let's give Namor a chance to calm down from that before we tell him of a potential threat to his people possibly literally hanging over his head. I don't want to start World War Three. We don't have time for that, do we?"

"No," agreed Medusa.

Tony pulled out his phone, sending a message to the king of Atlantis to let him know that an Inhuman artifact was suspected to be on a ship and asking him to locate it but not to engage. "There." He showed Medusa the message, "I made it a jurisdiction thing instead of a danger thing."

"Good idea." Despite the late start, the Royal Family managed to cover everything they intended to before Tony and Crys returned to the Baxter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Playing with the timeline a bit, some of AOS canon has to remain for Triton's presence in Hawaii to make any sense. The confrontation on the Iliad happened but Gordon was removed from it after having his metaphoric eyes opened by a moon Inhuman, therefore he's alive and able to assist his fellow Earth Inhumans (doing what he thought he'd been doing all along under Jiaying) and there's no robot arm for the Director. Quake and Vijay Nadeer and all the other Earth Inhumans still get their powers the same way they had in the show but with Tony's defense of the Enhanced and Attilan in the picture, registration and the ATCU are prevented.  
> Oh, and of course the Avengers don't move into the Tower until after the Data Dump, so that happened, just add it to the list of charges against Rogers' lot. His time with the Four having shown him a healthy team dynamic (even though he kept his origins a secret from both teams), Tony's not blind to the Avengers' abuse. Lemme know what you think.


	10. Final Four

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony finds something interesting and shares it

"I dug up some old SHIELD footage of my team." Tony was already setting up the video as he spoke "I made some coms for the team back then and told Reed I got them off the Men in Black. Turns out, he kept some of the tapes so this video has audio. Fair warning, the colors might be a little wonky since I added them along with the audio." All of Earth's Enhanced protectors had gotten together to compare notes, trying to get everyone on equal footing for the fight to come. Without SHIELD or the Avengers in the way, people believed Tony's warnings. Young Peter Parker AKA Spider-Man was asked to watch Franklin Richards, making him one of the few real heroes not present.

"Who are we fighting in this?"

"The Frightful Four, it's our last fight actually. SHIELD probably thought Trapster would capture us for them." Tony finished cuing up the video and took his seat between Crystal and Reed. They were in a theatre to watch footage from their training sessions (the New York Compound was one of several such bases open to superhero teams) and field work. Tony's discovery fell into the latter category.

The video opened as the Fantastic Four caught the Frightful Four red-handed. In the video, Human Torch nodded to the man in yellow and orange "Sup, Pete."

"Johnny, way to ruin the surprise."

"Sis, I'm on fire, literally and Ben's made of stone, we're not exactly stealthy."

"Indeed," agreed Wizard, throwing a disk at Sue, who then began floating away as Dragon Man crashed into Ben. Human Torch started dodging globs of glue as Trapster began trying to, well, trap him.

Pausing the video, James Rhodes asked "Mine doing a roll call for those of us unfamiliar with your college heroics?"

"Right." Tony stood up and pointed at Trapster "Peter Petruski originally went by the name Paste Pot Pete. After he switched to Trapster, using his original code name was a good way to tick him off. Dragon Man," he moved to Ben's opponent, "Was actually a robot and one of two constants in the team's line up along with its creator," the man who sent Sue floating away, "The Wizard. I still don't get how he kept changing up the line-up without any of the guys he repeatedly used noticing the changes and realizing they were being used. Lastly," the only member that did not engage the Fantastic Four, "Klaw. Black Panther knows this guy so does Bruce, sorta. Guy managed to steal some Vibranium and used it in a prosthetic hand slash sonic canon. Not sure why he didn't use it in Johannesburg but that's the guy Ultron got the Vibranium for Vision from. Together, they were the last iteration of the Frightful Four. I'll do a where are they now at the end, although I'm sure Ulysses has moved on from Johannesburg so can't help you there, Panther. Shall we continue?" Tony retook his seat and Rhodey resumed the video.

Young Reed said "I have a plan." Then he went up to get Sue, vanishing from the frame.

"Yeah, we'll just wait here for ya, Stretch." Ben grumbled, which was apparently recorded on their coms, earning chuckles from the audience.

Trapster managed to get the Human Torch and Klaw approached to end it, "Nice crew, Lex Luthor." That drew the attention of the three living members of the Frightful Four. "What? Wizard is totally a real life Lex Luthor. He's smart enough to be a millionaire inventor, yet he turns to crime. He thinks he's so smart that when things don't go his way he blames everyone else, it can't be his fault that we've won every single fight, no. You don't care about anyone but yourself, Lexi, not even your girlfriend."

"Thundra," prompted Sue over coms.

"Thundra." Looking around, Torch managed a sly smirk despite the headrush from being stuck to the wall upside down "You guys didn't know. Yeah, left the love of his life to save his own skin but he still go the loot. You guys have worked with him before, and not always together, you can't say I'm lying, you've seen the proof yourself." Klaw turned his arm on Dragon Man, blasting the robot to bits. Before Wizard could react, Mr. Fantastic was back, wrapping a hand over his face and using the other to disable his tech. Klaw blasted the glue holding Torch in place and as he fell, the pyrokinetic yelled "Flame on!" bursting into flames. The two thieves and four heroes surrounded the defenseless Wizard. "You're a real idiot and that's coming from me," said the Human Torch. Reed pushed Wizard into Ben's waiting punch before the six still standing combatants made their escape.

Present day Tony stood up as the video ended and said "If Ulysses Klaue is the Klaw we used to fight then he and Mole Man are the only surviving former enemies of the Fantastic Four not in this room." The screen was covered with images of other enemies, including Trapster and Wizard, showing them dead. "A lot of our old one-time allies are also dead and gone," the gallery began cycling through images. Tony explained the SHIELD Index and assured everyone that New SHIELD was different in a good way. "Their Director would be put on the Index if it still existed along with one of his top agents, Quake. I think Attilan and Atlantis have done a pretty good job scaring the world away from registration of any kind, which includes the Index. And if that's not enough, with all of us aware of how bad things were when SHIELD was nearing its height, I'm sure we won't let it happen again. To tell you the truth, the Index is what the Fantastic Four were founded to combat. I helped Ben escape SHIELD agents, found Reed and Sue before their lack of control outed them. Reed can be a bit of an airhead and it was only a matter of time before his lack of situational awareness caused him to use his powers without thinking around the wrong person. As for Sue, she'd get stressed and turn random body parts invisible. Since her powers didn't extend to her clothes, her solution was to bundle up. Heatstroke was likely imminent. I was trying to protect them from Carter and SHIELD when they took what I was telling them the wrong way and thought I wanted us to work as a team to help others. I wasn't totally against that idea by the time Reed and Sue got enough control to hide their powers so we became the first publicly recognized superhero team, staying just on the safe side of urban legends. SHIELD knew we existed, they just couldn't figure how we kept disappearing, especially since Ben is a hulk made of orange rock. Between our break up and reunion, the army got Ben to be their secret weapon and even managed to keep him a secret from SHIELD. That's our story. I got more archive footage of us but the Frightful Four fight was the only one I matched up the audio and added color to. I think we should let someone else have a turn on screen, whaddya say?" Shaken to the core, they moved on and managed to get back in the swing of commentating on the other videos, pointing out places each team could improve.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The fate of the Frightful Four:  
> Wizard: SHIELDRA picked him up and decided to "flip" him to their side. He was killed for either insubordination (having never truly lost his ego) or made an example of to get more loyal HYDRA agents to work faster.  
> Thundra: a job with Wizard gone bad, he reached over her (having the chance to save her) to get the loot and ran. She died and SHIELDRA dissected the corpse trying to find the source of her power.  
> Trapster: unaware of the Fantastic Four's break up, he staged several progressively more out-there robberies culminating in a shootout with police. Weilding only a glue gun, Trapster died with a body count of 0 while a few people died in the crossfire from police bullets.  
> Klaw: Wizard used the threat of having tampered with his arm to make Ulysses Klaue serve him, providing the soundproof costume that made him a silent goon even though silent is the last thing Ulysses is.


	11. Training Day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony teaches some of his fellow supers a lesson, all without using his powers

Everyone in the Royal Family completed Royal Guard training following their Terrigenesis. Tony had made a point of appearing irresponsible and reckless, the perfect cover for the great warrior he truly was. These two facts inspired Rhodey to use his best friend to teach some of their fellow superheroes the value of teamwork. Enlisting Vijay's help, he created a rectangular course with a bell on one end and a line a little more than halfway to the bell. "For today's training exercise, we're going to test our greenest members. Tony, please stand in the middle of this line." His best friend took his place on the middle line and Rhodey let him know the plan, earning a nod and a thumbs up before the leader of the day's exercise returned to his place on the side opposite the crowd watching. "If I call your name, come up to the far line," he instructed, pointing to the line opposite the bell. Once the most foolhardy team was gathered, Rhodey explained "The object of the exercise is for all members of your team to reach and ring the bell. To do that, you must get past Tony." When arrogant smiles appeared on their faces, he added "Without using your powers. Once you ring the bell, you must stand behind it. If any member of your team fails to pass the test, we will reset and start over. Captain Marvel and Karnak will join me on this side to call the match, that means any of us can call for a reset or your team leader can reset by tapping out." Carol and Karnak crossed to his side of the course, flanking him. "Does everyone understand the rules?" Still smiling, the team on the line nodded. Rhodey checked that the crowd was also nodding before saying "Begin." After each ref called a reset, the team was starting to see the error of their arrogance but they still weren't strategizing.

At the fifth reset, one of the team members complained "I think my ribs are broken."

Rhodey said "The rest of you reset."

Tony took his place on his line and the rest of the team lined up on the start line while Sue approached the apparently injured super, who said "I think I need to go to the infirmary." Sue reached a hand towards his abdomen, "What are you doing?"

"I'm a doctor, I'm checking your ribs." Surprisingly, the faker let her rest a hand on his chest, hissing. "Take a deep breath." She moved her hand around as he breathed, "You ribs aren't broken."

"How do you-"

Tony asked "Who do you think treated our injuries? Part of having a secret identity is hiding injuries. Nowadays you can come to one of these facilities and check into the infirmary but in the 80s, we didn't even have YouTube tutorials, Sue treated our injuries and we tried not to get addicted to Advil. Now, reset. You can go to the infirmary at the end of the exercise."

Around the tenth reset, the leader asked "Can someone switch with us?"

Daisy Johnson offered, "My team's ready to go." Rhodey conferred with Carol and Karnak before allowing it. The Secret Warriors fought as a unit but Tony was better trained than most of them and took them all down. "Reset?" asked Quake.

"Pass."

As they climbed to their feet, Lincoln almost asked "What-"

But Joey said "I think he passed us for this exercise, don't look a gift horse in the mouth." He then quickly repeated himself in Spanish for Elena's convenience and the team retreated to the sidelines.

Daredevil's faction of the Defenders took up positions on the line and with a nod, Rhodey said "Begin."

Luke tried to knock Tony down but he ducked and used the man's momentum to flip him then jumped out of the way as Jessica tried to tackle him, sticking a leg out to trip her, which she narrowly avoided. Iron Fist and Daredevil came at him from either side, careful to aim their hits so they wouldn't hit each other if he ducked out of the way, although the fight made it difficult for Luke to even try to get up. Taking advantage of half the team's lack of training, Tony used Jess's attempt at an easy shot to use her shoulders to swing up and kick Iron Fist in the head before moving in an arc to sweep Daredevil's legs as his position on Jess made a clean shot almost impossible. Tony dismounted in such a way as to bring Jess down then returned to the line. Rhodey called the fight "Pass."

One of the first fighters objected "They lost the fight and didn't even ring the bell once."

Karnak explained "The stated objective was not the true objective." A lot of foolhardy heroes were emboldened by the two wins and their teams took turns at the line, going until they lost all hope of winning then asking to switch.

Over two hours passed with the various Enhanced teams that had been more or less thrown together in preparation for the imminent invasion- much like the Avengers had been- taking on Tony and losing, some passing without realizing what the true objective was because they strategized a little. Finally, Tony was worn down to the point where he asked "Can someone switch with me?"

Rhodey checked the time, "Anyone prepared to switch with Tony?" Black Bolt raised his hand and Rhodey waved him forward with a smile "Fantastic Four, on the line."

As they lined up, Tony nodded to his teammates before asking his best friend "If we meet both objectives, you'll end the exercise, right? We'll explain how we did it and call it a day." Tony had seen Sue look worried about the time when Rhodey checked it.

"Deal." The Four faced Black Bolt and Rhodey called "Begin."

Ben charged but Reed and Sue got to Black Bolt first, tag teaming him and drawing him away from the finish line. Tony contributed to the fight occasionally as they kept him distracted from Ben's run until they all heard the clang of the bell, Ben obviously deciding not to risk flipping the thing by trying to reach under it to ring it properly. Sue was tagged out so she turned and started running, Reed waiting a few seconds before joining her as Tony doubled his efforts, keeping Black Bolt focused on fending him off. The bell was rung twice in quick succession and Tony struck in earnest, having studied his cousin while his teammates were engaging him. Before the king hit the floor, Tony was running for the bell. He only meant to knock Black Bolt down, and that's all he managed to do, but the fall bought him the needed time. He dove across the finish line, ringing the bell and popping up to join the rest of his team.

Rhodey smiled "End of exercise. Explain and we'll call it a day."

Reed started them off "From working together for years, we all know each other's strengths and weaknesses."

Tony picked it up "We know Ben's the slowest so we had to get him to the bell first."

Ben added "And Matchstick's the fastest so he went last. Stretch and Suzie are-"

"-A real life dynamic duo, notice how they took turns ringing the bell."

Sue said "Before today we had never seen Black Bolt fight, we went into this just as blind as the first team to go against Tony."

"Knowing each other, knowing how we work together, that’s how we won," said Reed. "Skill beats strength everytime."

"We drew Black Bolt away from the finish line to give Ben space to cross."

Ben said "But that also meant they had more ground to cover when it was their turn, 'specially Flamebrain."

Tony smiled "The goal of this exercise was to use teamwork to get every member of the team past a guard to ring the bell then stand behind the bell. The two objectives were ringing the bell and using teamwork on the guard. For us, the guard was Black Bolt. For the rest of today's teams, I was the guard."

"We ain't a team," Ben corrected. "Everyone else today, they was teams. We're a family. Being a family means that when one of us four can't take care of ourselves, we got three people ready to stick their necks out to watch out backs. Family means we look out for each other, even when we can't stand each other. We may have broken up as a team but we never stopped being a family."

"We don't expect every team here to be like us," Sue said "But if your team gets even halfway there, winning the war won't be a problem."

Carol said "Alright, deal's a deal. Time to call it a day, everyone dismissed."

"Rhodey's in charge today," countered Tony.

The man himself said "Every team should take advantage of their access to facilities like this one and those who don't have access to similar facilities back home should take advantage of their time here. Learn your teammates skills, strengths, weaknesses. Learn how to use each other's strengths to cover for those weaknesses. The reason so many teams didn't pass today's exercise was that many of you operate as individual agents, you have a team leader but even they treated today's exercise like a free for all. Every member of the Four knows every other member as well as they know themselves. You need to work to get halfway there if we're going to succeed. Team leaders need to learn to communicate and peace-make with their team, compromise is key. Rogers was a my way or the highway kind of guy who refused to admit when he was wrong, we can't afford more leaders like that. Take this time when we're all together to find a way to make things work, even if you need to alter your lineup or elect a new leader. We're here to prepare for a war, not start one among ourselves. Some of you claimed you broke some bones. I expect to see all of those people in the infirmary check in log as well as anyone else who needs medical attention, even if you just need some Advil, all medical supplies are kept in the same place aside from first aid kits so please don't raid those unless you can't make it to the infirmary. Everyone else, have a good day."

They took the dismissal for what it was and Tony fell into step with Crystal, "Rhodey knows me too well, I gotta swing by the infirmary but I'm pretty sure nothing's broken or dislocated. I'll see you at home."

"See you there."

Tony stopped to talk to Sue "Crystal and I have no idea when you and Reed got married, when Franklin was born or how old the kid was. I gotta check to make sure I didn't crack anything but when I get back, we need to sit down and straighten things out. We all managed to forget to tell Crystal that Franklin's a reality bender, luckily he only conjured bunnies while she was babysitting. Please tell me we did better with Spider-Man."

"We did, mostly because we don't live with him. I'll see you when you get back."

"See you then."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I kind of wrote this entire chapter around like three lines that kept floating around in my head and keeping me from focusing on anything else. One of those lines was Reed saying "Skill beats strength everytime" but I feel like it could've been better placed. By the time I got to the end, my mind was going in several different directions. I won’t get rid of the line but if you can find a better place for it, lemme know.


	12. Lessons

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Inter-team training comes to an end

Tony went down for the third time in half an hour, and just like the last two times, he quickly got back up and struck his opponent, Thor. "Hey, Captain, what was the Kree's opinion of Asgardians when you were a Starjammer?" Tony dodged the next hit, the Thunderer was a terrible fighter who relied on his size and strength, much like Rogers.

"You're seeing exactly what they saw. Strong, prideful, ultimately useless. They actually had a higher opinion of Inhumans."

"Do you think my ancestors standing up to them had something to do with that?"

"Probably. The Kree respect strength and commend courage. Even in war, they do not ignore any possible advantage the enemy may hold."

"Like the Skrulls' shapeshifting. Yeah, they found ways around it, but they still recognized it as useful and dangerous. Asgardians probably scoff at that sort of thing, mock it and rely on brute strength to overcome it because no race who relies on tricks can best the might of Asgard." Tony ducked a wild blow and nearly went down when he lost his balance but managed to turn it around in time to avoid another, worse hit. "Are we gonna keep fighting until one of us is concussed or until Thor breaks the no powers rule? I'm telling you right now, Hulk regulates his strength better than this guy." Combined with his and Carol's conversation, that pushed the alien prince over the edge. Tony ducked the blast of lightning, "Switch?"

"Switch," agreed Carol. Crystal was standing at the edge of the sparring ring, Tony tapped her hand as he ran past to rejoin his team. Carol called for Thor to "Reset. That means you stand over there while your opponent stands on the other end." Once they were opposite each other, the Captain said "I am suspending the no powers rule but I advise you to keep power use to a minimum." She directed the first part to Thor, who smiled, and the second to Crystal who nodded seriously. "Before we begin, you're both going to shake hands to show you know how to regulate your strength," she looked right at Thor. "If you can't do that, you're off the team."

"Only Colonel Rhodes can make that call," reminded Crystal.

Rhodey said "If he can't regulate his strength then he's a danger to civilians and his teammates alike. I already talked to Captain Danvers, we agreed on this in advance."

"Right. Shake hands then begin?"

"I'll tell you when to begin, shake hands then back away." They did as told and Carol checked Crystal's hand before calling "Begin!" Predictably, Thor charged and Crystal coated the floor in front of him with ice, causing him to fall just as Rogers had. Both hands extended towards the ice, she turned her palms upward and lifted them both, the ice covered Thor. "That's match." Crystal returned to her family before releasing Thor. Carol stopped the Asgardian from charging her "Thor, she won. Shaking hands on Midgard is a way of agreeing to honor the rules and accept the results of a match."

Her use of the word honor had the intended effect and instead of trying to pick another fight, Thor smiled "That was very clever."

"Thank you." Thor rejoined Rhodey's team for the end of exercise recap.

"Today combined everything we've been working on. As Reed Richards said, skill beats strength everytime. Thor is stronger than both Tony and Crystal yet he lost both fights because he relies on his strength and power too much. After today, you all have a choice to make. You can choose to leave and retire to work with baselines in preparing for the coming war, help your fellow man be ready to clear out when the real fight starts and protect the people that way. You can choose to stay here and work on building skill, maybe even change teams if you work better with another and they will allow you to join. You can leave and continue training at home. There are plenty of choices and you have the next few weeks to make your decision before we reconvene. You can stay here to train but New York will not be hosting when we reconvene. Dismissed."


	13. Uncle Gorgon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony fills the Four in on his time in Attilan

After they were dismissed, Tony told the rest of the Four that he would meet them at the Baxter before joining the Royal Family. "Is there any chance Gorgon can come to the Baxter with us or is he busy with Royal Guard duties?"

Black Bolt smiled, nodding before Tony finished his question then signing to keep his answer the same, Medusa said "He can go with you and Crystal."

Knowing his nephew well, Gorgon asked "Is there a reason you're inviting me over now?"

Tony resisted the urge make a joke about Gorgon's intelligence, as was common among the family, and instead said "Most of the room back there doesn't know where I learned to fight and I'm pretty sure that includes my team. It'd be a lot easier to explain with you there." Tony turned to Crystal "Now we know how all four of us forgot to tell you about the reality bender since both of us forgot to tell the other three about my training."

"Good point." They reached Lockjaw and went to Attilan, the dog waiting for Gorgon to let go until Crystal told him, "Gorgon's coming with us."

At the Baxter, Tony made a beeline for the living room, "Peter, how'd you do on your essay?"

"I aced it, Mr. Stark. What're you doing back ahead of the others?" That was a fair question, Tony usually flew back and made a point to get home last, often dealing with SI stuff while he was out.

"I hitched a ride with Crystal. You can go home, I got this."

"How do I know you're really who you say you are?"

"Herbie?"

The helper bot floated in, "Yes, Johnny?"

"How do you know I'm Johnny?"

"Biometric scans and voice prints, did I make a mistake?"

"No, Peter just asked for proof of identity."

"Oh, that's a relief."

Peter said "Okay then." He picked up his backpack on his way out, "See you around."

Crystal led Gorgon into the room after Peter was gone, Franklin ran over with a cheer of "Aunt Crystal!"

"Hey, Powerhouse, how's it going?"

"Good, Peter and I played video games."

"Mario Kart?"

"Uh-huh."

"Sounds awesome." She followed him over to the couch to play while they awaited the others, Tony quietly introducing Herbie to Gorgon.

Once they were all home, they had dinner and Sue sent Franklin to his playroom, more worried about Gorgon's presence than her son messing with the fabric of the universe. As they moved to the living room, Tony said "First off, I was being literal when I called Gorgon my uncle. His full name is Gorgon Petragon, my mother was born Myrra Petragon, he is literally my mother's brother. As his nephew, I am technically already a member of the Royal Family and second to last in the line of succession."

"Second?" prompted Sue.

"About a month, maybe, before Crystal and I started officially dating. Black Bolt’s brother Maximus attempted a coup, he's currently working off his debt to Attilan for that by helping build a new city to fix the overpopulation problem. As a last resort, he could be king but that’s probably never going to happen."

Crystal interjected "Tony received Royal Guard training after his Terrigenesis, which is standard for members of the Royal Family. Gorgon and Karnak trained him, which is normal in our generation."

"Right," Reed said "Gorgon is Captain of the Royal Guard and Karnak's a tactician, that’s how Tony was able to beat everyone in the bell exercise." As Sue and Ben turned to him, he added "I get why you don't advertise this. Most people would probably fixate on how you're both members of the Royal Family and treat your relationship as incestuous."

Tony admitted "I was a bit worried Ben might do that."

The Thing objected "Just cause I ain't a doctor don't mean I'm an idiot. All Inhumans are technically cousins, ain't ya?"

"Most not all. Gorgon's my uncle, Crystal is Medusa's sister and Myrra was my mother, we're not necessarily cousins but we are all related."

"Obviously, you're all descendants of the same people."

"Exactly. Did you get a degree in the thirty odd years since the breaking of the band?"

"Yeah, got my Masters."

"Congrats."

"How many doctorates you got?"

"I didn't start as young as Reed did and I don’t keep count."

"Right."

Gorgon changed the subject "Tony said Franklin was born with reality bending powers."

Before Reed could start, Tony told him "Pretend Gorgon's Ben. No offense."

"None taken, Big Brain needs the reminders."

"Well then I guess reality bender works but it's not entirely accurate." He explained some of the ups and downs of raising such a powerful kid, Sue taking pride in how focused her husband remained through the whole night until Gorgon borrowed Lockjaw to go home.

Tony told his uncle "Pretend he's Ben is code for talk like a normal person. Don't let the Genetic Council know there's someone even more powerful than Black Bolt living among the humans, God knows what they'd do with a threat like that."

"I'll keep that in mind." Gorgon pulled Tony into a hug, knowing his nephew wouldn't accept one without being coaxed even when he desperately needed one. The Captain silently cursed Howard Stark for his obliviousness, useful as it may have been for Tony's training. Breaking the hug and putting a hand on Lockjaw, Gorgon said "Take care," as he vanished.


	14. Scars

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some painful truths are revealed

Tony was careful not to let anyone see his scars, a lot of them were hard to explain. Even drunk, he kept himself mostly covered. Crystal was amazed one morning when Tony was sitting on the edge of the bed without a shirt, his back was to her and she could see a few scars littering his back. A nasty one on his shoulder drew most of her attention "What happened?"

Her fiance jumped a little and his skin glowed faintly, a sign of his power, as he turned the light on. "Which one?"

"Your left shoulder."

Taking a deep breath, Tony spoke slowly, "I took a, I don't 'member what they call it, it was an alien weapon. In college, I got taken to an alien war world, they called me Nova Flame. During the escape, I went back for this guy, K-Star, great fighter but he nearly got himself killed because he was focused on the fight in front of him. I went back 'cause I needed his help to get the innocent people out. Probably would've been a bit of a spat if I hadn't gotten," he gestured to the scar, "He was a bit of a fight or die kinda guy himself, didn't like dealing with the weak but he had honor so he did what I told him to after I saved his life. Found out at the end of that adventure that K-Star was short for Kree Starforce." Crystal gasped. "Yeah, K-Star was Yon-Rogg back before Carol met him. Some of my scars are from Afghanistan, the surgery and the sadistic insurgents, a lot are from the 80s, being the Human Torch back then." Tony stood up and got dressed.

"Do any of them still hurt?"

"The scars?"

"Yeah."

"I dunno. I got a hurt a lot, between Afghanistan, being Iron Man, the Human Torch, Nova Flame, some accidents in my workshop, betrayals- just, after everything, I have a very high pain tolerance. Reed says my body burns through toxins naturally and that, at this point, it probably does the same thing to analgesics, the thing in pain meds that make them work. I don't feel anything but I'm used to them."

Only then did Crystal realized how early it was, "Why are you up at this hour?"

"PTSD." He picked up his wet shirt "Sweated right through it, you know I'm heat resistant so sweat only comes from exhaustion or emotion. Had to get it off, had to breathe, to calm down. It's fine, you're fine. I'm gonna head down to the lab." He left the room, stopping in the doorway "Bet Carol's heard of Nova Flame since Yon-Rogg was her TO and CO."

"Right." Tony left Crystal with a lot to think about.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feedback is always welcome
> 
> Are we ready for the Infinity Stones? Or should I expand on Nova Flame and war world?


	15. K-Star

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony tells his family about his alliance with a Kree

Things were just a bit tense when the Four and the Royal Family got together one night for dinner. Tony's not even sure how this happened, except for the fact that they're both his family and this was family dinner. Waiting until Franklin went to his playroom and Herbie went to watch him, Crystal asked about war world. "Oh, that's what this is about," said Reed.

Tony asked "Are you really asking about Mojo's gladiatorial games or K-Star?"

"K-Star."

Tony told the story, "On war world, or Mojoworld, or whatever the hell that place was called, they used a combination of implants that caused excruciating pain and threats of planetary destruction to force abductees to fight to the death. I think it was in my first fight, Mojo sent a swarm after me and I used what I call the Nova Flame, it's the most powerful blast I can generate. Mojo purposefully misunderstood me and declared Nova Flame my name, which is probably how Commander Yon-Rogg of the Kree Starforce became K-Star. A bit later, Mojo pitted us against each other and we unfortunately proved we weren't that different by both of us trying to refuse. Key word: trying. That's how I found out about the implant in my head but when we both went down from that, Mojo's audience wasn't happy so he stopped and unleashed a monster. K-Star's implant had been active a bit longer than mine so he took longer to recover. Saved my life three times while we were on Mojo's war world, the first was when he lured that monster away from me and nearly got himself killed. Oddly enough, nearly getting himself killed was a trend among those three saves. I burned the damn thing and made a deal with Mojo that amounted to I'll fight for you but you have to save him. Mojo made a show of turning over the mostly healed K-Star to his champion. Mojo wasn't the brightest, I got armor, an ally and a bit of leeway from that deal. After destroying the cameras around the room, I burned out the control collar they put on K-Star."

"Burned out?" echoed Sue.

"I didn't burn it off so Mojo could see it if he dropped by unannounced, I'm not an idiot, I did manage to plan a revolution right in front of the damn guy, Mojo could literally see everything in his little world and he had quite a few drones to make up for the lost cameras. I only burned out the collar after it served its purpose of keeping K-Star from killing me. Until he stopped trying to kill me, the collar made sure he couldn't hurt me. As for why, after refusing a duel to the death, he was trying to kill me, there is actually a very easy explanation for that. Remember Mojo had world destroyers aimed at our home planets, that's how he got abductees to fight to the death for his entertainment. K-Star thought that if he died in such a battle, Mojo would withdraw but Mojo was actually going to destroy Hala as a posthumous punishment, which is another reason for our deal. Once K-Star understood that, he stopped trying to kill me. In hindsight, he probably didn't want to risk Mojo following through on the threat against his planet. After he stopped pointlessly attempting to murder me, I destroyed all of the cameras I had seen in the room and that seemed to make my position on all things Mojo clear. We actually managed to plan Mojo's end despite the cameras I burned being replaced, thereby enabling Mojo to watch us. One thing I get from my mother, other than Inhuman genes, is her skills at manipulation. Dad was oblivious enough not to notice when I disappeared for like a month when I was 12 so it's no surprise that he didn't realize how good his wife was at twisting things, even when she started teaching him to do the same. Back when mom and dad got together companies didn't have PR departments, mom was it for dad, PR is all about spin control." He raised his hand to stave off reminders to focus, "Mojo was all about putting on a good show, setting up and executing the most exciting fights, it wasn't hard to convince him to set up a fight between me and him, Nova Flame versus Mojo. He insisted on a public schism to set it up and gave me a pretty easy fight against a robot designed to look like it could be a fellow Terran, I know it was a robot because I could see the metal after I beat it. After the mock split, he paid me a visit and made it very clear I would not be winning our fight. That was as much foresight as he ever showed, apparently believing I intended to use the duel to overthrow him."

Sue said "You didn't?" At the royals' looks, she explained "He never told us much about war world, I just checked his injuries."

"That's my fault," said Reed, "I think I went overboard with the science questions, which I thought you couldn't answer but-"

"I couldn't, if you'd let me finish the story, you'll know why."

"Right."

"Between my fight against K-Star and Mojo, I had a lot of fights. Time seemed to work differently there, I was on war world for a couple weeks but here on Earth, only a couple days had passed. Rhodey still had to cover for me but it wasn't strange for me to go on an inventing binge for a few days, still isn't, so he had practice doing that. My disa- right, focus. My point was that I had already started a long game, challenging Mojo was part of my endgame. Mojo kept K-Star and me separate and sometimes paid me a visit to record promos but K-Star was a trained soldier, we managed to map a route to the cells based on the routes that were used to take us different places, mostly to the arena. Those weeks of fights helped me map the place out and steal some supplies. Before my fight against Mojo, K-Star and I made our way to the cells to get the other abductees. Almost the entire time we'd been planning and even while we executed the plan, K-Star kept telling me what a bad idea and waste of valuable resources, namely time, rescuing the others was. Then the dumbass nearly got himself killed by getting too focused on a single enemy and engaging them in hand to hand instead of stealing their gun and shooting them. From talking to Carol, it seems he never overcame that weakness but he did respect me a decade later, Earth time. She didn't go into detail but she said I was the only person she'd ever heard him express genuine respect towards. Anyway, he got focused on a fight, lost sight of his surroundings and I got the scar to prove it on my shoulder. The Ten Rings were probably shocked to see so many scars on a rich American, they reopened a few, including the one I got blocking what would have been a fatal attack on K-Star. I'm sort of thankful they did that because that made the doctors when I got home miscalculate the age of the scars."

"Focus," said Crystal "After you blocked the shot-"

"Right, I blocked the shot, K-Star stopped screwing around and didn't even question me when I told him to get the others off-world then I ran off for my last scheduled fight. From the weeks I spent on his war world, I knew where some of the cameras that stream the fights were and I called him out on one of them, forcing him to abandon his command center instead of destroying Earth or whatever planet he was gonna take out right then. I was shocked by how well Mojo fought, I wasn't actually throwing the fight and he was still winning, I guess I really pissed him off. At one point, he called what I did a betrayal. Before he could kill me, K-Star got him off me. Unlike our first fight, K-Star and I actually worked together pretty well instead of taking turns going at him. In hindsight, I think the guards and monsters may have been Mojo-clones. Anyway, when it was clear he was going to lose, Mojo tried to turn us against him. The warlord was many things, a straight-talker was not among them. He didn't just point at me and say Inhuman or point at K-Star and say Kree. He phrased it in such a way that I was actually home and studying for exams when I finally figured out what he meant. Those were his last words, which is why they were still on my mind over a week later." He held his hands up "Focusing. Apparently K-Star got a pretty good look at the computers after sending our fellow abductees off-world. He thought he might have a way to stop the world destroyers but he needed something from Mojo, I was so concussed from the fight that I don't really remember what happened immediately afterwards but I'm pretty sure K-Star shared his plan to stop the world destroyers because that's what we did next. Carol said she might be able to dig up some old footage from Mojoworld, maybe the cameras were still broadcasting after the fight, I feel like they were for a bit. I don't know, I'm not sure if K-Star took something electronic or a body part like a finger but he took something and we were off. He gave me directions at least twice, and when I say directions, I mean literally like left and right since we had to split up for the plan to work. I wound up going to make sure the power went where we wanted it to and prepare to blow up the ship once we were done. Mojo and his war world no longer exist, Yon-Rogg was around a decade later and I'm obviously still alive so you already know how that ended. I think they had portal tech that K-Star used to get me out before I could blow up with the rest of Mojo's war world. I took the Mojo armor off when I got to work on the engines or whatever, a lot of things are blurry around that time and I'm almost positive Yon-Rogg was speaking Kree through part of it. Point is, I was only in my Fantastic Four suit when I got back so it was almost like I dreamt the whole thing, except-"

Reed said "You actually had the implant."

"Do you still have it?"

"I took it apart, remember? And I couldn't get it back together, we were lucky to get it out safely."

"Relative term in our line of work."

"Right."

Tony explained "So I'm back for a week or so and I finally realize that Mojo was trying to tell me K-Star was Kree and tell K-Star that I'm Inhuman. I also remember K-Star lifting his gun while I was leading us through war world, just for a second, and when I turned back to him, he was looking at the weapon like he didn't know what it was. Based on that, I'd assume he either understood what Mojo was saying or already knew I was Inhuman but at that moment, it didn't matter. Remember, he didn't have to shoot me to kill me, I couldn't man the computers because, for obvious reasons, they didn't use any Earth-based language. All he had to do to kill me was leave me behind, he was controlling the computer that sent me home before the overload could destroy me. I bet he put that part of the whole encounter out of his mind because he apparently respects me more than most. Maybe he thought I knew what the K in K-Star stood for. How the hell I could know that is anyone's guess since Yon-Rogg isn't blue and I was clearly from a backwater planet since I couldn't read anything in Mojo's world. Anyway that's that."

"Not quite," they turned to see Carol enter the room, "Sorry, your automated door let me in, I thought that meant you let me in."

"What am I missing from the story?" asked Tony.

"Yon-Rogg destroyed Maveth, the planet your ancestors banished Hive to before fleeing human persecution."

"Really? When?"

"I don't know, probably when the Kree decided desperate times call for desperate measures. Are you willing to work with him again?"

"He was a commander, right?"

"Not sure if he was a commander when you met him and after he failed with me, he was demoted so I don't think he's a commander now."

"But he was when you worked for him?"

"Yes."

"Having an alien commander would probably be helpful but he's not allowed on Earth or in Attilan."

"Of course."

"We can communicate through your ship, right?"

"Yes."

"K-Star and I saved a lot of people when we liberated war world, he can't be the only one who'd answer a call to arms like that. Plus, Thanos wants to wipe out half the universe, I can't imagine the universe is fond of that idea. Yon-Rogg can be a go-between for Earth and the army that's going to help up protect the Stones. We have two already on Earth, sooner or later Thanos will come for them. Also, maybe, let people know Nova Flame and Iron Man are one and the same. I did sorta nuke Thanos' army, part of it anyway. We'll have to time it carefully but if there are any planets around ours that our allies can use to set up bases, it shouldn't be too hard to sell the idea to the UN once we finish translating those files on Thanos you brought to Earth. Just let them set up a defensive perimeter on planets that are uninhabitable to us, they only want Thanos and that's the only thing uniting them. See? Easy sell. You might have to sell them on letting Yon-Rogg run the army for us."

"That could be difficult."

"Tell them he was a respected Kree commander who has already been known to set aside old prejudice to get the job done, point out he already speaks an Earthly language fluently and let them know he would be commanding the army on our behalf. The Kree want Thanos gone, most of the universe wants Thanos gone, Earth doesn't want to be the site of his latest gift to Death, I'll help you figure out a speech to sell Yon-Rogg to our military leaders and maybe one for the politicians, depending on who we wind up pitching to."

"Right."

"We'll have to get approval before we start enacting any plans that could conceivably endanger the planet. Once we have it, we can send out the call. Let the survivors of Thanos' cullings know where the final fight will be, get our defense going. Hopefully we can keep the fight off Earth but if not, we need some potential battlefields cleared, try to find places a lot of our people can reach quickly, and evacuation measures ready to go in case they manage to take us by surprise."

"Sounds good."

"Great, I'll schedule the meeting, try to get us in this week by playing up the fate of the world card. Bureaucrats aren't always reasonable, some care too much about protocol."

Carol asked "Where did the name Nova Flame come from? I get K-Star but you never told me how Mojo got Nova Flame from Human Torch."

"He didn't. Nova Flame is what I call my most powerful blast, which I used in my first fight and Mojo misunderstood on purpose."

"Ah, that makes more sense."

Tony smiled and nodded, "Yeah. Think I'm who Yon-Rogg sees when he looks at the Supreme Intelligence?"

Seeing the others' confusion, Carol explained "The Kree Supreme Intelligence takes the form of the person you respect most. I respected Dr. Wendy Lawson, Mar-Vell."

Tony further explained "A Kree scientist who chose to help the Skrulls after finding out her people wanted to wipe out the shape-shifters for refusing to submit to Kree rule. She was using the Tesseract to develop a special engine for a refugee ship when two members of the Starforce were deployed to kill her, causing the accident that gave Carol her powers. Hence, Carol adopting her name for her alias Captain Marvel."

Carol nodded "Since Nova Flame is the only person I've ever heard Yon-Rogg express genuine respect towards, I assume that's the form the Supreme Intelligence takes when speaking to Yon-Rogg."

"I used special hair dye and color contacts back then, I actually got some paint and used that on war world. The version of me Yon-Rogg sees is either on fire or blond haired and blue eyed, possibly yellow haired from the paint."

"Why bother?" asked Crystal.

"I don't know." He shrugged, "It was kind of a habit, I guess."

Sue said "You're ridiculous sometimes."

"I'm sure some would say I'm ridiculous most of the time."

"I'm not sure they'd be wrong."

"Fair point." The banter eased the tension in the room and everyone asked their questions about war world and Yon-Rogg. What started as a very intense dinner, ended like most nights in the Baxter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Can anyone guess what DC character I blended Mojo with?


	16. Marriage

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony decides not to tempt fate

Tony talking to Medusa alone rarely happened but as it stood, Carol had taken Black Bolt off world with a few members of the Genetic Council to measure his power. Tony decided to skip pleasantries "I want to get the paperwork sorted out so that if something happens, Crystal will be listed as next of kin. Right now, that's a bit up in the air, as is my citizenship."

"How is your citizenship unclear?"

"Remember that document you and Black Bolt signed that gave Attilan citizenship to all foreign Inhumans?"

"Yes."

"According to that document, only future foreign Inhumans get dual citizenship with Attilan, everyone who under Terrigenesis after it went into effect is automatically considered a citizen of Attilan alone. I retain American rights without the legal citizenship that usually goes with. I think when it's time to renew, the UN will seek a revision that alters the citizenship default to make tracking populations easier on everyone."

"Right."

"I just want to sign whatever papers are required for Crystal to have the rights of a spouse for medical purposes. Technically, that paperwork usually consists of a marriage certificate but without something like that, none of my actual family is considered next of kin."

"You want to skip the wedding?"

"Technically." Tony had a tense smile on his face, "It took Reed and Sue like three tries and theirs wasn't all that public. I'd rather not tempt fate with Thanos. I just want to file the paperwork ahead of time."

"Right." Medusa realized his timing was not ironic "You set this up so I could sign instead of trying to talk Black Bolt around."

"No, I actually forgot the law favors him. In case you forgot, I didn't grow up here, I didn't even grow up under a human monarchy. The workings of a kingdom are literally foreign to me."

"Have you at least talked to Crystal about your plan?"

"No, I'm not that kind of smart."

Medusa laughed a little at that, "Talk to my sister, if you're both on board then we'll find a way."

Black Bolt got back before Tony finished explaining his plan to Crystal, forcing Medusa to talk her husband around. Gorgon was the most confused, as usual, "So legally you'll be married but technically you won't be."

Tony sighed "There's something humans call spousal rights. If I die fighting Thanos and Crystal survives, the Stark family estate goes to her. If something happens and doctors need to contact next of kin to make medical decisions then they'll contact Crystal. It's just for the sake of doctors and lawyers." Tony turned to his uncle "Haven't you filled out your next of kin paperwork or did you get an exemption since Attilan is technically participating in the war as its own state while I'm acting as a member of the Fantastic Four?"

"No idea. You're filing marriage paperwork to make Crystal your legal next of kin in case you get killed or almost killed?"

"Yes. Like I said, it's just for the sake of doctors and lawyers, giving her spousal rights. If we survive Thanos then we'll have a proper wedding."

"Makes sense."

"Glad you think so." They filed the paperwork the same day Tony explained it to his uncle, it went into effect the next day and managed to stay somewhat confidential, meaning no one asked about a royal wedding but they did stop using the term fiance when referring to the Inhumans' relationship.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was not planned. I was reading Lord Blue & Lady Purple by Orca478 again, the story features Tony finding his soulmate and kid!Peter being his biological son. I was on Chapter 20 when I realized that part of preparing for war is thinking about what happens if you don't make it and thus, I was inspired to write something about it. As Tony said, he had to fill out next of kin paperwork and that's when he realized he should marry Crystal on paper, at least, before Thanos gets there and tries to kill them. Now that they're married, Tony will have to update his will.  
> I welcome feedback with open arms.


	17. Bad Timing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony pranks Reed  
> His timing couldn't be worse

In an effort to keep Reed grounded in reality- as opposed to lost in his own head- Tony set Herbie to deliver reminders in every language in his matrix. Having a built-in digital translator, Herbie was fluent in every language on Earth. Unfortunately, the first reminder lined up with a Royal Family dinner that Maximus was supposed to attend. Tony had to go to make sure nobody died and thus was going to miss Herbie driving Reed nuts. The reminders only went off in the lab and automatically shut off when Reed was prepared for the upcoming event, Franklin’s seventh birthday in this case. Before putting a hand on Lockjaw, Tony told Herbie "Make sure to record Reed's reaction."

"Will do, Johnny."

Arriving in Attilan, Crystal asked "Reed's reaction to what?"

"I set Herbie to repeat reminders in every language but only in the lab and until Reed is prepared for whatever he's being reminded of. Franklin’s turning seven next week so tonight will be the first time Herbie does it. I'd silence your phone if I were you."

"Right," Crystal took out her phone and did just that. Their coms enabled their phones to receive calls and texts in Attilan, despite there being no cell towers, but in an emergency, people usually bypassed phones and called coms directly.

Tony and Crystal took their seats, the former breaking the tension by asking Maximus "How are the gauntlets coming along?"

"Gauntlets?" asked Medusa.

"Maximus has been working with me on single stone Infinity Gauntlets to enable anyone to safely wield an Infinity Stones. Carol told me it took five people to use the Power Stone and they were still nearly turned to ash, none of them were even human. My father based the Arc Reactor on the Tesseract, which houses the Space Stone, and the Arc Reactor that was in my chest when Thanos sent Loki to Earth to get the Tesseract blocked the power of the Mind Stone. The Gauntlets that Maximus and I are trying to make will harness the power of any Infinity Stone the way my Iron Man armors harness the power of an Arc Reactor." Tony turned to his cousin "How's it going on your end?"

"The main problem is we don't have any way to test them." He continued before Tony could correct him "Arc Reactors aren't shaped like Infinity Stones, we need to use one of the Stones we have to make sure the housing we build works with them."

Tony sighed "Once we have a good prototype, I'll ask Strange to come over and transfer the Time Stone. He knows how to use the Time Stone so he'll be able to test the Gauntlet for us but he'll have to take it back when he's done."

"That should work."

"Anything else notable?"

"Construction is almost finished, we should probably make a map."

"For what? An Attilan Atlas?"

"Yes."

"I was only half-joking and that's not a bad idea. If you think about it, Attilan has three cities and they're all spread out, an atlas is probably the only way to map the whole country. Keep any Kree artifacts off the key, of course, and that includes Terrigen."

"Naturally."

"How's your head?"

"Much better. The neurologist said I had overactive underdeveloped pathways similar to an untrained psychic."

"Like Maximoff before she realized she could affect minds, right?"

"Yes," Maximus did not sound happy about the comparison, which proved he was not totally isolated.

Black Bolt signed and Medusa translated "Neurologist?"

"Y'know Gordon, right?" At the king's nod, Tony continued "He's been acting as a link between Lai Shi and the island. Once Maximus calmed down, he let Gordon take him to a neurologist for a brain scan. Since Black Bolt's power originates in his brain, we thought that if Maximus did have a gift then it would show up on the scan. Neurologists are trained to read the results of those scans. I only knew they found something but I didn't know what they found until Maximus just filled us in." Tony lit his hand on fire and shaped the flames into a brain, "From dealing with AIM, I know a little bit about the brain. Aldrich Killian said that the brain, while incredible, is inefficient. He claimed Extremist fixed that problem, made the brain more efficient, basically rewired the brain to achieve its full potential. I had thought that maybe Terrigenesis did to Maximus what Killian claimed Extremist did." Focusing, he made one part of the model flare "That is, if I remember right, the part of Black Bolt's brian that is supercharged." His model vanished "I didn't see Maximus' results so I couldn't even begin to guess what parts Terrigenesis changed but, like I've been saying since someone first told me that Maximus is human, that's almost impossible. Overactive but underdeveloped means his brain was changed, he has psychic powers but because everyone thought he was human, there was no need for transitioning." Tony glanced at Maximus "Correct me if I'm wrong on this but did the neurologist mention anything about overloading part of the brain?"

"Yes but he said that there was a limit to what the effects of that could be."

"The human brain runs on electricity, that's why Dr. Lincoln Campbell ranks so highly on the dangerous Inhumans list. Seizures are often caused by part of the brain overloading and they can be deadly. The underdeveloped part of overactive, underdeveloped pathways means that you have a lot of power but it isn't moving the way it should. Assuming we got the diagnosis right this time, Vision should be able to fix that with the Mind Stone, assuming the neurologist didn't find any damage."

"Not that he told me."

"He'd have to tell you if he found something, you have no family on file since Crystal was the only one who had a cell phone when you went in to have the scan done. I'm sure you had to sign a lot of waivers in case something went wrong."

"Yes."

"What'd you sign as?"

"Max Bolton, the same name you scheduled the appointment under."

"Yeah, shortening names is always easier, less to remember."

"Right."

Tony's com went off but before he could answer it, he blacked out. When he woke up, he had a collar around his neck, most likely with a rod of some kind connecting it to the restraints on his wrists. He could guess some of what had happened based on the position he was in, he was probably thrown into this cell then yanked forward by whoever collared him and left hunched over. _Use every advantage,_ Karnak's voice rang through his head when he considered opening his eyes. Trusting the voice of Attilan's greatest tactician, Tony kept his eyes closed and listened.

"Suzie?" he heard Ben say when the Thing woke up and listened as he grunted and groaned, probably trying to escape his own restraints. Knocking out the Thing took strength and skill, although someone with enough skill could probably use Ben's strength against him. Whenever they had been taken in the past, Ben always went down last and woke up fighting mad. This time, he guessed, was no different.

Next, judging by voices, Triton woke up and immediately began trying to wake the rest of the family. Surprising, Triton had a rather simple and obvious weakness, dehydration. Whoever did this must have wanted them alive if they made sure Triton had the water he needed to live. Triton succeeded in waking everyone else up, a sort of domino effect forming wherein the people he woke started waking others. Tony would bet that his fellow Inhumans were restrained in an identical manner to himself, Sue and Ben were something of a mystery. Sue noticed Tony was ostensibly still unconscious "Usually Johnny wakes up first."

Ben said "Yeah, used to drive Doom nuts. We need to find Reed."

Tony could hear Sue go through the motions to calm herself down before reminding Ben "When Reed's not around, I'm in charge."

"Got a plan?"

"You should stop trying to break through those. If they managed to knock you out, they must know about your strength."

"Right. They also must know Torch is Inhuman, that hasn't been common knowledge for long and even fewer people know where Attilan is."

"You're not suggesting-"

"I kinda am."

Crystal asked "What are we missing?"

"The Four have fought a couple of time travelers in our day, I'm suggesting one of them did this."

"A few?"

"Yeah, mostly accidental time travelers who stopped fighting when we proved they were in the wrong era."

Tony listened to them talk, keeping his eyes closed and mouth shut no matter how much he wanted to cut in. He listened to them and focused on himself, trying once to raise his body temp high enough to warp the metal restraints but that didn't work and he nearly outed himself as being awake. Since the others were distracted by talking, trying to come up with a plan, only Tony noticed guards' approach. When they came in, he moved fast to get between them and their target, Sue. Getting his first look at the room, he realized he was right about all Inhumans being restrained the same way. In under fifteen seconds, he also realized the guards were meatheads. As one reached for him, he spun around, lowering to a crouch and kicking back with one foot. The guard wasn't hurt but he definitely didn't like Tony now and grabbed the rod to throw him. In response, Tony shifted his weight and spun. Were he not moving quickly, that move would look very stupid since he basically swung himself on the rod that the guard was about to use to pick him up and throw him. The rod broke at just the right moment and Tony crashed into the guard's head full force.

Jumping off just before the man hit the ground, Tony landed on his feet facing the remaining quartet. As they lifted their guns, he charged between them, dropping down to slide just before they could shoot him in the head. Two of the guards shot each other, taking them out of the fight. Tony stood and turned around to face the remaining pair, "Seriously, guys, this is ridiculous. My hands are literally tied behind my back and you're still losing. What now? You gonna cheat and zap me then beat me up, think that'll work? Are you really so bad at your jobs that five of you can't beat a restrained enemy?" They were gonna zap him before he started talking and riling them up, one of them even threw down the remote to the collars. "Idiots," said Tony, apparently pushing his luck. Then the pair proved him right by getting in each other's way and ignoring everyone else, including their fallen comrades and the other prisoners. In Tony's not-so-humble opinion, the idiots took themselves down. Once all five were down, Tony kicked the remote over to Sue and looked at Ben "Don't move." The Human Torch charged at the Thing, jumping on him and hitting the cuff binding his friend's left arm with his full weight when he landed there before moving to rest against his head. "You'll catch me if I fall, right?"

"How'm I-" Ben tried to move his arms to demonstrate his point and found his left hand actually came loose. "Eh, yeah, I'll catch ya. Want me to be still so you can get the other one?"

"Cross your left hand over your chest then yeah." Ben did as asked and Tony moved onto the remains of the broken cuff, running along Ben's arm to crash into the remaining one. "Ah- Flame On!" His collar zapped him as he was making the jump to crash into the cuff and Tony lost his balance on the landing, causing him to fall. Conditioning kicked in and he burst into flames, floating a few inches off the floor. Without missing a beat, he flew to the middle of the room and straightened so he was vertical when he blasted his surroundings. His control over the flames ensured they burned through the collars and cuffs without harming the people wearing them. Turning the flames on the door, he dropped down "Stay low." A short spray of gunfire went over their heads before Tony's flames did their job. Straightening, he rolled his shoulders and retracted the flames, "Let's move."

Maximus asked "Did you condition yourself to burst into flames at the sound of your catchphrase?"

"Sort of, it only works when I say it."

Sue asked "Is that why you always say the words even though you can burst into flames without them?"

"Yeah. Can we focus on the task at hand?"

Ben asked "Where are ya leading us?"

Tony stopped talking and they kept following him through a maze of hallways, Medusa asked "How do you know where you're going?"

"Energy." That explained exactly nothing but he seemed to know what he was doing and none of them had a better idea so they kept following him. He brought them to a stop at the end of a hallway, pointing at the second to last door on the left "That door-" Ben tried to ram it and was thrown back "-Is charged." He turned to the Inhumans "I leave opening it to you, our ride home is on the other side. Sue and I are going to get Reed and meet back up here."

Ben asked "What about me?"

"You're too big." He went through the door at the very end of the hall, two doors down from the one he asked his family to open, and found a staircase. True to his words, Ben would not have been able to get through the door, much less up the stairs.

"How do you know where you're going?" asked Sue, hoping to get a better answer than Medusa had.

"Energy was being siphoned to that room, likely to keep the powerhouse within contained. If you look carefully, you can tell when a place is being avoided and people avoid what they fear."

"And Reed?"

"The guards tried to grab you for a reason, it's gotta be Richards, not sure which one but I'm bettin' that Reed is up."

"How do you figure?"

"Um, look around. Tech aside, what does the place look like?"

"A castle, I guess."

"And castles use-"

"Towers."

"Bingo."

"Why didn't you answer Medusa?"

"What?" Tony was genuinely confused.

"All you said was energy."

"Oh, uh, I didn't really understand what I was seeing and time is weird, y'know, I just want to get out of here before trying to figure out what the hell is going on. I'd rather not miss the fight with Thanos and come back to a halved world."

"Right." Tony stopped "What?"

"You and Reed have that energy thing, can't you track him from here?"

"Oh, right. I forgot about that." Since Sue and Reed got their powers in the same accident, they shared a power source. As Tony understood it, their powers drew on the same well of power, especially outside their home universe where the natural well was, and they could find each other by following the energy or something. Reed explained it while freaking out one of the many times Sue was taken and there were days Tony simply couldn't understand regular Reed Richards, forget a panicked Mister Fantastic.

Sue and Tony found Reed shortly after that and rescued him with a little maneuvering, which involved Sue turning the door invisible (another power she forgot about). They hurried down just as the Inhumans figured out the door, "Nobody tells Tony-"

"Nobody tells me what? Did the door almost beat you? It's cool, I actually thought we might need both parents to get him out." Tony moved swiftly to pick up Franklin "Take us home, Powerhouse."

"Power-" Franklin did as asked before Sue could finish "House?"

"What? I'm the Human Torch and you're the Invisible Woman, creative naming is not our thing."

"I didn't know you gave him a codename."

"Oh, it's a nickname really."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter started literally with my desire to have Herbie speak Spanish at Reed and totally confuse the man. I remembered Tony suggesting Sue have Herbie remind Reed of important dates and decided to plan a prank. My muse ran away from me and I wound up writing an abduction story.
> 
> Tony used Classical Conditioning so that when he says Flame On, his body automatically ignites. The words are a conditioned stimulus, bursting into flames is a conditioned response, I need a suggestion for an unconditioned stimulus for the explanation in a future chapter.
> 
> All forms of feedback welcome


	18. Movie Night

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> How the Fantastic Four deals with traumatic events

Tony scooped Franklin up and sat him on the kitchen counter "Herbie, scan us all and retrieve necessary first aid supplies for urgent injuries." Tony turned to Sue "I'm thinking movie night, no bedtime, no lab time."

"I'm thinking Reed needs to report this first but clean up can definitely wait."

"Sounds like a plan. Herbie, scan for urgent injuries and retrieve necessary medical supplies for Sue. Reed, report our recent misadventure. Ben, let's get started on dinner." Tony walked around the counter, Ben following his lead.

A few of the Inhumans looked at Sue, who explained "Leadership isn't cut and dry with us. We follow whoever has the best plan, which is usually Reed because the rest of us usually take longer to figure out what's going on. Ask Tony, I guarantee he doesn't know what just happened but he led us out anyway."

Tony but in "I was making it up as I go. What'd Herbie find?"

The results appeared over the counter by Sue, who sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose "Tony."

"Suzie. Does Herbie need to be recalibrated to better understand the word urgent?"

The list was nearly cut in half at his comment with Herbie apologizing for his mistake. Tony scanned the list, which automatically sorted itself into separate lists for each patient. Surprisingly, nobody needed much medical care. Tony stood as straight as he could and Sue used her forcefield to straighten his body even further, fixing the damage done by the rod on his cuffs. Crystal watched as the list of Tony's injuries whittled away to nothing just from Sue holding out her hand to project a forcefield. Then the Invisible Woman turned to the Royal Family, "Do you want me to administer first aid or would you rather go home and deal with things there?"

Karnak came around to read the list, commenting "First aid would be redundant."

"Right," drawled Sue, turning to her husband "Have you made your report?"

"Of course."

"Then you can take care of Franklin's bath."

"Right," Reed picked his son up off the counter and left the room. After he left, his wife went to clean up the living room.

Tony noticed Max looked out of place and tossed him an unopened phone. "We keep extra for this sort of thing," he explained when Medusa gave him a strange look after instinctively catching it "And I was aiming for Maximus, he should probably call Gordon if he wants to go home."

"Right." Medusa's hair passed the box to her brother-in-law.

"Thank you, Tony."

Crystal asked Tony "Do you know what Franklin wants for his birthday?"

"Don't worry about it." Tony smiled "In case you've forgotten, giant teleporting dog trumps literally everything. You kinda only have to show up to the party," He glanced over at the list Karnak had read, "Next week. I guess time wasn't affected by whatever happened to us."

Crystal asked "Do you know what he wants for his birthday?"

"To be honest, no, I don't know what he wants specifically for his birthday but riding Lock' will probably make his decade, even better if you tell him where the name Lockjaw came from."

"Alright." Crystal around the kitchen, "Are you sure you're not making too much food?"

"We're having a movie night because we'll probably have trouble sleeping, which means we'll be up all night so no, we're not making too much. Speaking of Lockjaw, Reed reported our latest misadventure, which means your sister can just refer to the report instead of trying to explain what happened since none of us actually know what happened."

"Right," said Crystal, not sure what that had to do with Lockjaw.

Tony stopped being subtle, "You should call your dog so your family can go home since we're not debriefing tonight."

Medusa said "Good idea." Crystal led her family to what was semi-officially called Lockjaw's room and called her dog.

By the time Reed finished bathing his son and getting Franklin dressed in pajamas, a spread of finger foods was laid out in the living room and the parental controls on the TV were engaged for movie night. Crystal and the rest of the Four had all changed into their own pajamas, Sue took her son and sent her husband to change, reminding him the lab was in lockdown. During the exchange, the Inhuman princess realized that she had never seen them in casual clothes before. Even Tony seemed to live in his uniform and he still had responsibilities to SI as their majority shareholder, although he no longer ran R&D citing a conflict of interest in his work with Dr. Richards. Dozing off a couple times, Crystal quickly understood why they had declared a movie night. Every time she had a nightmare, either someone shook her awake or was there when she woke up to talk her down from the dream.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What do you think, my loyal readers?


	19. Stark Murders

Tony caught Gorgon training, thanks to Karnak. "Hey, Uncle G."

"Tony." Gorgon's guard was up since his nephew almost never called him Uncle.

"Uh, I’m gonna preface this by telling you outright that I can’t tell you the full story right now and what I can tell you is gonna make you angry."

"Never a good sign when you warn someone."

"Right. It's about mom. Video of her murder has been found."

"What?"

"I haven’t watched the video but I can guess about the content. I can't tell you who did it but if you figure it out on your own that's not on me. Rogers knew and said nothing, which has cost him what little support he had left. That's all I'm going to say-"

"Barnes killed them."

"Wow, I actually thought that'd buy me time. Yeah, his handler for the mission has been arrested, he was in prison when the video surfaced. I have no idea where the video came from but apparently you and I have a right to see it. Not sure why we'd want to but the option is there."

"Right. Can you just tell me-"

"Ten minutes with a super soldier's hand around her neck killed her. The Winter Soldier is supposed to be the most efficient killing machine in the world, I have no idea why he spent ten minutes strangling her. Dad had his head bashed in. Barnes described every Winter Soldier mission as he remembered them and my parents were among the first he could remember. My last name was apparently a trigger because he knew dad during the War. I don’t know why anyone would want to watch their parents get killed but I can accept the offer of the video if you want it."

"I don’t know."

"I talked to Karnak to make sure I caught you in your off time, you could probably get some time off to come down to Earth, get some real air."

"I'll think about it."

"Alright. Uh, not that it helped me any but, I dug up the Winter Soldier records for the case. He was kept out of cryo for almost three days after the mission for medical reasons. Barnes asked for a haircut after he really started making progress in therapy, he wanted it all gone and long story short, they found scars on his head. There's no way to be sure but given mom was Inhuman and the two days he stayed out of cryo after killing her, some of those scars were most likely her doing. HYDRA kept rather detailed records of what they did to him in case problems arose in the future, we’re sure most of the scars are from that but some don’t match the records. Given a little time, the video will clear things up."

"Thank you for telling me."

"What choice did I have? Karnak would probably set you off and fighting won’t bring her back. I think you should ignore Rogers and Barnes. Rogers would probably look at the video of the murders and just start screaming about how it wasn’t Bucky, why do you think this revelation cost him his last supporters? Barnes is in therapy, he's trying to remember every one of his victims to give families like ours closure. He's probably putting himself through Hell in the process. Maybe we should let him know we understand the difference between him and the Soldier once we've both had time to process. Save your anger for whoever ordered the Soldier to strangle mom, it's the only explanation for wasted time I can think of, the only reason he didn’t make it quick."

"Right."

"I'm not leaving you alone. Reed's social skills are terrible but he was there when I found out, he helped me stay calm enough to do the mature thing and send other people when I tracked Barnes down. He managed to be a mature, sane adult. I wonder how much Adderall that took."

"Adderall?"

"It’s a medicine that is supposed to help people with ADHD focus. Reed has never been diagnosed as far as I know but he has trouble focusing and he’s more than smart enough to get some. I was making a joke. If Reed took Adderall without being diagnosed and prescribed the drug then he’d be breaking the law. If he was diagnosed and prescribed Adderall but only takes it sometimes, that’s self-medicating, which means he’d be either misusing or abusing Adderall. And I just gave you an anti-drug PSA. What'd you think of my spiel? Rogers recorded a lot of PSAs that are used in schools after he came out of the ice and now the schools using his videos want to replace them."

"I think you did good."

"Great, I have no idea who is going to be asked to record replacement videos. Little known fact about Rogers, he would never have gotten his diploma if teachers had known he'd live to see 30. They gave him a huge pass on pretty much everything because they thought he was going to die sooner rather than later. Even with the pass, he still almost flunked out. Everything Captain America related in schools is getting phased out, they're focusing more on the Holocaust in history classes to fill the time that used to be spent on Captain America. You wouldn't believe how happy people are about that."

"Awesome." They left the training area, Tony just walking with his uncle until they found Karnak. "Tony says I shouldn't be alone."

"I just told you that your sister was strangled for ten minutes. I only just got clearance to come up from the Baxter alone to tell you that."

"How long did you know?"

"Since Barnes confessed." Tony admitted "The offer of the video made me realize I forgot how few people on Earth know you're my uncle. Most people don't realize Maria Collins Carbonell is a human name not an Inhuman one. After the press conference, there were even people saying that mom never lied because she was never outright asked if she was human. Guess I forgot how dense people can be but the offer was kind of a trigger and my team wouldn't let me leave while I was worked up, Reed even went so far as to call it protocol, which is weird because only Herbie has set protocols."

"Okay."

"If you want to come to Earth to get some space or visit Barnes, Eldrac has already agreed to take you but you'll need to make it at least a full day trip or get Lockjaw to bring you back."

"Full day?"

"24 hours. Earth is at the edge of Eldrac's range, that's why opening portals down there hurts." Tony told Karnak "Strange's offer stands, he only knows Attilan is hard to reach but Sling Rings use extra dimensional energy so range shouldn't be an issue." Tony pulled out his own Sling Ring and opened a portal home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In Endgame, many portals were opened to transport troops. In this story, Strange offered to teach some of his fellow heroes how to use the Sling Rings to more efficiently do that- with the order's permission, of course, he needs them to provide rings.
> 
> Lemme know what you think. Should Tony and/or Gorgon watch the infamous video? Should they visit Barnes? Ignoring Rogers is not optional, nobody here is dumb enough to deal with him more than absolutely necessary.


	20. Franklin’s Big Day

Tony, Crystal and Sue took charge of getting things ready for Franklin's birthday. Sue and Tony teamed up to get Reed out of the lab and into bed at a reasonable hour. Victor von Doom, among others, was invited because he had a child Franklin's age named Kristoff. Reed put up a bit of a fuss over inviting Doom but Sue wanted their son to have friends and there would enough adults around to keep everyone safe. Everyone knew logic was Reed's kryptonite, he would occasionally accept conclusions he did not like if the logic was sound, much to his teammates' frustration. After getting the absent minded professor to bed, Tony and Crystal got the kitchen ready for the day to come while Sue made sure the living space was ready for guests. Tony was, quite possibly, the only person in their found family who could skillfully cook. Reed got distracted, Ben had trouble with the utensils on top of his taste buds being shot to hell by his transformation and having no experience cooking, Crystal never needed to learn or thought about it much (not having realized a lot of her meals at the Tower were made by her boyfriend). Sue could cook edibly but taste was a bit of an issue. For Franklin's birthday, the kitchen was Tony's new lab. "So I was thinking I'd make him a milkshake in the morning after breakfast that he could drink instead of juice. We have everything for it in stock and you're in charge of the grocery list."

Sue asked "What kind of shake?"

"His favorite candy bar."

"I thought you ordered the candy for the candy, did you buy enough for all of us?"

"Uh, everyone who lives here except Ben, yes."

"Johnny." Most of the Four and Herbie fell back on calling him Johnny even though they all knew he was, technically, Tony Stark.

"We don't have an industrial blender and his powers come with an enhanced metabolism. Plus, there's no way you'd approve enough candy."

"Oh, right."

"The shake is the only deviation from your plan. That and Crystal might let him ride Lockjaw."

Crystal asked "Should I have run that by you?"

"I already know, I was in the room when you decided that and it's fine, I trust Lockjaw with Franklin. In case of emergency, we evacuate to Lockjaw, and that we includes Franklin."

"Right."

"Lockjaw's a good boy, Franklin will be fine."

The next day, Ben asked Franklin at breakfast "Are you excited for today?"

"What's today?"

Tony quipped "You are definitely your father's son. It's your birthday, we're having a party to celebrate."

"Really?"

Sue said "We're even on time this year."

Crystal looked at her "That's unusual."

Tony asked his brainiac brother "Reed, when's your birthday?"

"My birthday?" the scientist asked.

"Yes. On what day were you, Reed Richards, born?"

"Uhm." After a few moments, he admitted "I'd have to check the calendar."

Crystal was openly gaping "How do you not know? Isn't that basic information everyone is supposed to memorize as a child?"

"Which brings us to today," Tony said "We're gonna make today memorable so forgetting his own birthday is not something Franklin inherits from his father." A grin crossed his face, "Whether the guests or the party itself will make the day memorable, only time will tell." As if on cue, Reed sighed and looked longingly at the door, knowing Sue put the lab in lockdown.

During breakfast, Ben asked Franklin what his birthday wish would be. He wanted to play big boy video games like Tony and Ben played. After breakfast, Ben occupied him with Mario Kart while Tony made his shake and started dinner, which would take all day to cook given the number of people they were expecting. Crystal and Sue talked to Reed, warning him not to get into an argument with the guests and stop acting like he would rather spend a day in the lab than with his son. Crystal even brought up Howard's obliviousness, which was advantageous when it came to hiding Tony's Inhuman nature and damaging when it came to Tony's emotional development. Reed conceded defeat, his son was more important than even the most fascinating experiment or discovery. He took over for Ben after the first round, finding himself actually a match for his son, they were both rookies and his constant glances at Franklin kept him from overthinking his strategy. Tony came in after their first race and gave them each a smoothie, "Your mom said you can drink this instead of juice. It's a Reese's smoothie." Tony whispered to Reed, "He also likes Rolos but Sue says they're too sticky." The physicist nodded, a bit ashamed by how little he knew his son despite doing bath time and bedtime... sometimes. He could see where this was becoming a serious problem, thankfully Franklin was still very young.

The father-son duo played for hours, both picking up a lot of skill and to Reed's silent surprise, staying evenly matched. Like Tony said, Franklin really was his father's son. They probably would have played all day but their guests arrived. A few Skrull youths, Doom and Kristoff, Peter and May Parker. Reed felt justified in pulling Tony aside to ask why he invited a teenager, "Oh, I was thinking Peter could be Franklin's babysitter. Let me introduce you." Tony pulled all three into the kitchen, "Mr. Fantastic, Spider-Man; Peter Parker, Dr. Reed Richards. May is Peter's aunt and legal guardian. I was thinking that since Peter has powers and is in training to be an Avenger, he might be well suited to protect Franklin when we get called away."

"Plus Peter can adapt to Franklin's mutant nature."

"Mutant?" asked the teen himself.

Tony explained "Sue and Reed aren't Inhuman, they are mutates like you. The thing that gives them their powers also altered their DNA, causing Franklin to be superhuman from birth. That's the real reason they can't hire a normal, human babysitter." Tony turned to May "I thought you might appreciate us keeping Peter out of the action when there's a world-ending threat."

"Subtle, Johnny." Reed said "You couldn't pull her aside to say that."

"I want to be upfront with both of them." He turned back to the Parkers "The alliance preparing to take on Thanos does not accept child soldiers, in fact the rule actually refers to the minimum age as enlistment age. You can both come here in times of crisis, the Baxter Building is among the safest places in the city, if not the whole country. You'll know when the fight is over because we will come back. You will not let Franklin know that mommy and daddy are fighting to save the world, that is not good for his health." He focused on his cooking, "Peter will also be welcome to join Reed and myself in the lab on certain days. We both rank in the top five smartest people on the planet."

Reed corrected him "We're both in the top three."

"I say top five because nations like Attilan and Wakanda haven't integrated enough for people in those countries to be in the official rankings. We have no idea where Princess Shuri or Karnak might rank if they were included. Top five is more accurate, even if top three adheres to the official list."

"Point taken." Reed told the Parkers "You and I will have to talk to Sue before I can hire Peter as a babysitter but he is welcome to intern with Tony and I, we'll have to figure out days."

Tony said "I figure he'd come here when he's not at the Tower getting power training or working with the street level Defenders, both things I can try to arrange for him. He's brilliant and Enhanced, double trouble." Peter could hardly contain his excitement then Tony gave him a box and he was briefly confused "Those should help with your metabolism. I've already worked out a full power profile for you while I was trying to figure out how to approach you about being Spider-Man and telling your family. The instructions are on the box."

"Thank you Mr. Stark."

"I have multiple PhDs but please, call me Tony or Johnny. My teammates often use my old alias."

"Thanks, Tony."

Soon enough, it was time for presents. Peter and May had gotten Franklin an age appropriate Lego kit, unlike the kind of kits Peter and Ned liked to assemble. There were more age appropriate toys and books, generic things as most of the guests did not know the birthday boy very well. They went through the guests' gifts first then moved on to the family's gifts, starting with Ben's gift: a 12-in-1 board game set. Reed was sitting beside his son, using his powers to grab gifts off the table after sorting them when Sue called present time. Reed looked at the box "It's a set of board games, says it has chess, checkers, chinese checkers." He glanced at Sue who gave him a look, "All fun games."

"Thanks, Uncle Ben."

"No problem." Tony and Victor both bit back comments about how much Ben must love online shopping.

Sue's gifts were next, she knew him best and actually managed to get him clothes he got excited over. Tony picked up the last three gifts and carried them over. "Your dad and I each got you a gift and then we made one together." He laid out the gifts in a row, "That's from me, both of us and your dad. Which one do you want to open first?" Franklin picked up the middle gift and opened it, frowning in confusion at the white cloth he unwrapped. Tony said "Unlike your mom, your dad and I aren't expert gift wrappers. Take it out."

As he pulled it out, a big grin covered his face. The little boy recognized the feel of the material before he finished pulling it out. Aside from being white, the suit also had a different logo on the front, a five instead of a four. Tony asked "You like it, Jack Jack Attack?"

"Yes, this is the best gift ever!"

"Maybe we should have saved that for last then," said Reed, moving the packaging out of the way and grabbing a hanger from where Sue had laid out a set for her gifts. Between the two geniuses, they managed to get the suit on the hanger with the other clothes and get Franklin to settle down enough to open his remaining gifts.

Tony gave him a set of Fantastic Four memorabilia, the Human Torch telling the other adults in the room "I still don't know how we got merchandise when we were urban legends. The depictions are all pretty accurate."

Reed gave him an erector set, "We really shoulda done the suit last." The boy thanked everyone for their gifts but he had some clear favorites.

"Ya live, ya learn." Tony got up and offered Franklin his hand "Your dad and I actually made a whole set of suits, like we wear. Wanna try yours on?" Franklin pretty much raced him to his room, leaving Tony to grab the suit and follow.

Reed made short work of cleaning up and Sue dragged him into the kitchen, "You made him a suit?"

"Tony and I made him a suit to practice his powers in." Lowering his voice, Reed told her "The suit's have built in homing beacons. If Franklin leaves the apartment wearing it, we'll get an alert on our phones. If he wanders off while we're in public or something, we can find him easily. Tony will upload the app to your phone tonight. I thought a suit would be nice and a good way to keep track of our reality bender son."

"Okay, I guess I should trust you on this."

Tony came back with Franklin, sending the little boy back to the party. "How much trouble am I in?"

"You two should've told me."

"So a lot? You do know that Herbie can tell you anything you want to know. He's programmed to act as a lab assistant slash babysitter for Reed. Speaking of, I invited Peter Parker to meet Franklin before I ask him to babysit. Reed can fill you in later, we haven't offered him a job yet, only an internship in our lab."

Reed looked a little scared but Sue simply smiled "Peter's Enhanced, isn't he?"

"Yeah, he's actually a teenage vigilante. I figure we kill a few birds with one stone: give him a safe place to evacuate to, something to keep him from rushing towards danger and of course, the internship. That's what he gets, we get a semi-normal babysitter. Actually, come to think of it, dealing with Franklin's powers will probably help him develop quick thinking skills. If he can't handle a 7 year old mutant, he's got no business fighting supervillains in the Superhero Capital of the World."

"I'll think about it."

"Thanks." Tony turned to Reed, "Can you get the cake down?"

The cake was cooling on top of the fridge where few could reach it to discourage people taste-testing it. Reed safely retrieved it and carried it out while Sue and Tony brought out plates and utensils. They set everything on the gift table and Tony ran back into the kitchen to get candles while Franklin's parents got him a chair to sit behind the cake. Once Sue placed the candles, Tony lit them with a wave of his hand. Pictures were taken, Happy Birthday was sung, Franklin blew all of his candles out with one breath all on his own. Sue cut the cake and Reed served it, Ben getting ice cream out of the freezer and joining them to distribute it.

After cake, the guests started to leave. Crystal waited until they were all gone to give Franklin his gift, a ride on Lockjaw anywhere he wanted to go. Between the sugar from his dessert and the excitement, Franklin looked about ready to burst. Given what his powers were, Crystal was not sure the boy could not literally burst from those two things. Sue and Reed needed to have a talk, leaving bath time and bedtime up to the others. Crystal took bath time, figuring that would be easier after the day Franklin had had. Ben volunteered to put him to bed, on the condition the other two get him dressed for bed. The three of them managed it, although none were sure he was actually sleeping but that wasn't much of a problem on his birthday. Tony asked Ben "How are we gonna get Reed to remember his own birthday?"

"What?"

"If Franklin asks his parents when their birthdays are tomorrow, they need to have an answer ready. How are we gonna prepare Reed for that?"

"Herbie," answered Crystal.

"Right, simplest answer is usually right." Tony said "Herbie, let Reed know when his birthday is tomorrow, before Franklin can ask."

"Will do, Johnny."

"Thanks." Tony looked around "Not bad for a first time. Nobody died, nobody was seriously harmed that we know of. We nailed this."

"Yeah we did," said Ben.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 20 chapters? Seems like yesterday I was posting the original one-shot. Seriously, this story (and this series) writes itself sometimes. Lemme know what you think.
> 
> FYI Peter keeping Spider-Man a secret from his aunt is the reason behind the kitchen encounter and Tony respecting his anonymity (to a point) is the reason Sue didn’t recognize Peter


	21. Forgotten Secrets

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony makes a discovery

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Working titles were Old Secrets and Louise Fisher

Tony’s teammates dug up the stuff they’d had in the old base. Apparently, Reed used some of his patent money to buy their hideout. Lockjaw made checking on the place and packing things up easy. Tony had everything shipped to the Baxter and helped Sue move things around so that they had a storage room waiting for the boxes. Reed helped sort through the boxes, finding quite a few trophies from their fights. Tony brought one box with him to a meeting in Attilan. He pulled out a small blaster he had reassembled while they were sorting through things. "All of this stuff is from the 80s. This is a Kree blaster."

"So," Crystal asked "Did the Kree come to Earth in the 80s or is that from War World?"

"Not sure about Mojoworld but the Kree did bring their war with the Skrulls to Earth in the 80s. How do you think the refugees and Mar-Vell wound up there in the 90s?" Tony amended "Actually, I think the Kree-Skrull War took place mostly in the 80s since the Kree were hunting stragglers in the 90s. I just brought this blaster because it's Kree and Maximus told me Inhuman tech is based on Kree tech when I asked how people in caveman days set up a city on the moon." Tony put the gun back, reached into the box and pulled out a cylindrical thing, like a sonic screwdriver, "You remember the video of our last fight with the Frightful Four?"

"Yeah," said Crystal.

"Remember how I brought up Thundra in that fight?"

"Is there a point to this?" asked Medusa.

"Just that you met her daughter."

"What?"

"Bentley Wittman, the Wizard, had a child with Thundra. My team arrived too late to either catch the Wizard or save Thundra but she wasn't quite dead when we got there. There was an explosion, I think, and Wizard retrieved the loot, like I said, leaving Thundra to die after the building caught fire. I don't remember how we knew she was in there but since I'm immune to fire and Sue can make force fields, we went in. Thundra was basically an Amazon, she didn't trust or like men, was raised in a feminist warrior culture. Sometimes I wonder if I wasted time waiting for Sue to catch up, if we could have saved her if I had gone in alone and brought her out. We'll never know. Sue had to be there or Thundra probably would've picked a fight. She was replaced by Dragon Man as Wizard's answer to the Thing. Anyway, we got her out and, it was bad. I mean, as the Human Torch, I pulled a lot of people out of fires and Thundra's case was among the worst. She died within hours, I could rattle off time and cause of death, probably not as accurately as a coroner would list it on a death certificate but then again Sue's not that kind of doctor. We tried our best, and the next time we saw Wizard, knowing that he was the only man she ever trusted and he betrayed her, well, we were still a bit raw from watching her die. Before she died, she gave us an address, seemed to be asking us to check it out. I think Reed asked for clarification and when Thundra didn't answer, Sue repeated the question, prompting Thundra to snap at her. Then again, she held out longer than a human could've with those burns, she was probably in a lot of pain. We went to the location she gave us, it was her home, hers and Wizard's, we found no traces of the rest of their crew. Again, before Dragon Man, Wizard and Thundra were the constants on the team."

"What does any of this have to do with that thing in your hand?" asked Medusa.

"Thundra and Wizard had a baby, as I've already said. It would seem they were both all too aware of SHIELDRA. Wizard took the newborn and did something to render their daughter human. This," Tony hefted the device, "Was made to undo what he did. Seems like he planned to unlock her powers when she was ready. I can't even imagine the fight that caused when Thundra found out. Back then, I was juggling a dual identity, for all I know Reed and Sue were too just without using aliases around the rest of us, and Ben was living in a warehouse struggling to accept that looking like a monster did not make him one. None of us could handle a baby. Luckily, if I remember right, the parents had a plan for that and it involved quite a bit of cash. After Thundra's death, we took the baby in for just a little bit, long enough for Reed to make a fireproof carrier and me to make time to take the baby to her foster father. Now that I think about it, I'm not sure Dr. Fisher knew where the baby came from. From what I saw, it seems he raised the baby as his own."

"What happened to the cash?" asked Crystal.

"I don't know. I'm not even sure how this thing works. There are some other things we took from that house in here." Tony put the cylinder back and withdrew the blaster along with a helmet, "The fight with the Kree was weird, we only got involved because they somehow mistook us for Skrulls and kept attacking random civilians. Skrulls use their shapeshifting to hide in plain sight and from what I can recall, the Kree had not yet mastered seeing through that trick so they attacked whoever looked suspicious to them. With no knowledge of Earth culture, everyone probably fit that bill. The weirdest thing was probably the fact they didn't realize I was Inhuman. They thought Reed was but not me. They accused me of being a Skrull but not Inhuman, mistaking my suit for Skrull armor or something. Reed, Ben and Sue all got called Inhuman, it's kinda funny looking back. Not sure if Mojoworld happened before or after the Kree-Skrull War came to Earth. Maybe if it happened after then that fight had something to do with Yon-Rogg's hesitance. I don't know. What I do know is Louise deserves to know the truth and in this case, shooting the messenger might be a natural response since telling her the truth involves admitting I dropped her off on her foster father's doorstep then said nothing when we met in Hawaii. I also fought her parents and watched her mother die, that probably won't help things. I'm not dumb enough to do it alone. I thought I'd let you know about this and offer the Kree artifacts. Reed and Sue are working on a dangerous artifacts room, putting all of the stuff we picked up from old fights in one room. I can put this stuff in there if you don't want it. I actually put the blaster back together when we were going through boxes, seems Reed forgot to do that before he abandoned the old base. He actually bought the place, which is the only reason this stuff was safe from SHIELDRA, I mean nobody had been there in decades aside from drop ins to keep it from being condemned, I assume."

"Okay, okay." Medusa and Black Bolt had a conversation in whispers and signs before the queen told Tony to leave the Kree stuff.

Jumps to Earth tire Lockjaw out so Tony resisted the urge to run off and talk to Louise right away. Instead, he listened to the reports on Thanos prep. Auran had trained a lot of Inhumans to join the Royal Guard on the island she and Maximus had been exiled to. Gorgon also reported trainers for the Royal Guard were sent to Lai Shi to work with enlistees there. They would probably have a good, strong Inhuman army when the time came. Karnak was working with outside military leaders, strategizing and coordinating preparations from there. Triton had become an official ambassador to Atlantis after the Monolith was recovered, Crystal had used her geokinesis to create an almost inaccessible underground chamber to seal the artifact away. Maximus reported progress with the Gauntlets, via their wrist communicators, he informed them that they were almost ready for the first test with the Time Stone and suggested that they begin selecting people to wear them. In general, Attilan was doing well. Aside from Tony informing them the Kree had been on Earth at least twice in as many decades less than fifty years ago, the biggest news was Carol's recent report that said Yon-Rogg was requesting to speak with Nova Flame, which was expected as the Kree soldier could reasonably assume Carol was simply name-dropping.

After the meeting in Attilan, Tony had a meeting with Louise Fisher. Callisto Aerospace, the company that employed Louise, was a subsidiary of SI. Tony had wanted to set up an early warning system for the invasion to come, back when nobody believed his warnings, which is how Callisto came into existence. Following their encounter in Hawaii and a long talk, Louise was promoted and her supervisor demoted for the hoof incident. Tony's justification had been "Aliens are real, you shouldn't brush something off because it doesn't fit your human worldview, change the way you look at the world instead."

Now, he sat down with Louise and Crystal in a corporate office with the box. He handed Louise the box, "All of that belongs to you, it was your parents'."

"How do you know my parents?" Louise looked at the contents of the box "None of this- what don't I know?"

"You were adopted, sort of. Your birth father's name was Bentley Wittman. As far as I know, he was human. He was also the only man your mother ever trusted. Your mother was named Thundra, she was basically an Amazon. I'm not sure if she was from the future, another planet, another dimension, what but she was raised in an advanced feminist warrior culture, making her basically an Amazon. I was there when she died. Your parents were part of a team of super criminals called the Frightful Four. The line-up changed a lot but your father was always the boss. Before your mother died, she and he were the only constants on the team. After her death, he made a robot Dragon Man, which became the only other constant member of the team."

"What happened to my mother?"

"I don't know the whole story, I'm pretty sure I'm missing something from what I do know because your mother was strong enough to go toe-to-toe with Ben Grimm. Do you know who- okay. The Frightful Four did these hi-tech, high risk heists and your parents were core founding members. There was an explosion, your father had to choose between your mother and the loot. To be honest, he probably didn't have the strength, and I mean physical strength to save your mother. I taunted him about it in our last fight to turn two of his teammates against him because one was about to kill me. I've already added color and synced up the tapes from our coms to the security tapes from that last fight, I can put in a request to give you a copy. I have to request it because the video is restricted, to avoid copycats or something. Anyway, as I was saying there was an explosion, your dad took the loot and ran. The one man she trusted abandoned her. I found her dangling over this pit, looks like the explosion caused the floor to cave in like a sinkhole. I had to direct Sue over to us and she used her force fields to pull your mom out. She was all burned up, your mom had enhanced durability among other powers, I'm pretty sure there was probably more to that explosion than just fire. We got her outside and Sue did her best to save your mom but she's not really that kind of doctor and it was just too late. I've helped clear quite a few burning buildings, I don't think I've ever seen anyone survive the kind of burns your mom had. She told us where to find you before she died, you were a baby at the time so I'm not surprised you don't remember. They had prepared for the possibility that they might need to bolt, to get the hell out of dodge. I'm not sure if your dad just didn't go home to you after the explosion or if he did and just took his go bag but you and yours were still there. We took a bunch of stuff from your parents' home, we were in a rush and finding a baby in the supervillain hideout was a shock to say the least. I mean, I guess it explains why your mom told us where she had been living. I don't know if we just didn't get it or we did and it was destroyed or what but we just cleared out our old base recently and I found the stuff we took from your parents, which caused me to remember flying a baby out of state and leaving her with a diaper bag and a bag full of cash on a doorstep. I remember ringing the doorbell and waiting, even though I was supposed to fly right back. Your parents' bolt plan included a way to hide you. I believe, looking back, they knew about SHIELDRA. I, actually, I only just remember waiting for someone to answer the door."

"What happened after my dad, or my stepdad-"

"Foster father, godfather if you'd prefer."

"After my foster father answered the door."

"I told him what the money was for. When you were born, your father did something to suppress your mother's Femizonian DNA."

"Femizonian?"

"Your mother was from a place called Femizonia, whether that is another planet, a city in another dimension or somewhere in the future, I don't know. I only know she's from Femizonia because she'd brag about it when she was fighting Ben. Your dad did something to you as a newborn that rendered you human like him. Another thing that makes me think they knew about SHIELDRA, although I'm sure your mother got pissed when she found out he did that if he ever admitted he made her, I mean you human in such a literal sense and didn't trick her into thinking his DNA did that. You didn't have a birth certificate and your foster father could hardly have one made legally without at least producing your mother. The money was to get you all of those legal papers you might need made. You're still you, y'know." Tony showed her the device he had shown his family, "This is supposed to unlock your powers. I don't know how it works. Use it, don't, it's up to you. Just try to remember being adopted doesn't actually change who you are as a person. Your foster father raised you as his own daughter, I assume." At her nod, he continued "He probably didn't know how to explain to you that the Human Torch dropped you off on his doorstep when you were a baby and gave him a lot of money to get you a birth certificate and other legal paperwork. I just told him what the money was for, I didn't tell him what to name you or where you came from or anything like that. I might've told him to take care of you but he's the one who chose to do that instead of admitting he found a baby on his doorstep and run the risk of you being taken away by social services or the police arresting him for kidnapping. He chose to keep you and raise you as his own instead of dumping you on someone else. The fact you didn't know you were dropped on his doorstep as a baby, the fact you viewed him as a father and followed in his footsteps, tells me he did a pretty good job raising you and never held how you came into his life against you. I didn't know the man, aside from the fact he answered the door for a man in a strange costume and took in a baby said stranger dropped on his doorstep, but I think that he probably kept the truth from you for good reasons, out of love. I doubt a man who takes in a baby left on his doorstep would keep the kid's origins from them just to hurt them."

"Right."

Tony asked "Did I give you my number last time we spoke?"

"Yes."

"Call me if you have more questions, I'll leave you to process." He used his Sling Ring to transport himself, Crystal and Lockjaw back to the Baxter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm thinking about having Rogers escape prison and come after Tony, just so I can have Gorgon take him on to show who's the better Captain (hint: it's the guy who actually earned the title). This is all in the thinking stages, I might just let the Avengers fade into obscurity. If he gets his pack of idiots (Wanda, Nat, Pietro) then I have matchups for them. Karnak VS Romanoff, Maximus VS Wanda, Crystal VS Pietro (maybe Pietro developed his own delusion about how she should be his not Stark's). Tell me what you think. The more support I get for this idea, the more likely it'll happen


	22. Attilan

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A look at Tony met his mother's family

When Tony heard Crystal was an elemental, he asked "What elements?" Crystal summoned a flame in her hand then blew the pre-teen back just slightly with wind before covering the floor in front of him with ice. "That's not an element, water is H2O, that's two elements." A few moments into his little tangent, understanding dawned on him "Elemental has nothing to do with the periodic table." Then he started making suggestions for things she could do with her powers, asking if she'd ever tried any of a long list of things. He was frankly adorable. Maximus cut in, turning the conversation away from 'have you ever done X' and towards the scientific implications/mechanics of her powers. Anthony Edward Stark quickly befriended each and every member of the family he had been totally unaware of just a week prior.

After lighting his Uncle Gorgon, or 'Uncle G' as he called the man, on fire for the third time, Tony actually beat the man in a fight without using his powers. Karnak, who had been observing their training and helping to calm Tony down when he accidentally triggered his powers, took over training from there. For the first day of his training under Karnak, Tony learned to meditate. "Great meditators can meditate anywhere, even when they are doing other things. When you allow unchecked emotions to trigger your powers, you will always struggle with control." Tony took the first part of this wisdom as a challenge and mastered the art of meditation in a single day. When they got to the combat portion of his training, one of Karnak's first lessons was to "Use every advantage." In the decades to come, Tony would hold the unique honor of being the only person to ever best Karnak in one-on-one hand-to-hand combat. After winning the fight, Tony offered his hand to Karnak. When the older man just looked at his hand, the young Inhuman explained "It's called good sportsmanship. You're supposed to help someone up when you knock them down." Karnak took the offered hand and climbed to his feet, watching in confusion as his student's excitement practically vanished before his eyes "That was awesome. But I can't use any of it, not after I go home and have to pretend Attilan doesn't exist. How could I explain being able to do that?" Tony smiled at him "Still, awesome. I guess if I had to, I could kill someone with those moves so nobody would be able to question how I can do it, same with my powers."

"Good. You should always try to use reason over violence, Tony."

One day after training, Tony found Crystal with Lockjaw "What's his name? I guess I should've asked when I got your name."

"His name is Lockjaw."

"How'd you come up with that name?"

"We played tug of war when Black Bolt first gave him to me, I lost."

"Locked jaw, Lockjaw. Clever."

"Thanks. How is your training going?"

"Great, I mean I still have trouble not lighting things on fire when I get excited but the Royal Guard training is going great."

"You'll get there, Tony."

"You did." A moment later, he backtracked "I didn't mean it that way."

"It's fine. When I first got my powers, I tried to run away from everyone and wound up icing the floor and falling."

"Wow."

"Yeah."

Tony looked down at himself, "They told me that my clothes are fireproof. Wanna see something cool?"

"Sure."

Tony smiled and said "Flame on!" His whole body caught fire and he lifted into the air, "I actually have less trouble controlling my powers when I'm like this. I mean, it's easier to control the flames when I'm on fire."

"Awesome."

Screwing his eyes shut, he forced the fire back inside. Crystal caught him when he wobbled upon landing, Tony asked "Have you ever tried to control two elements at the same time? I bet you could fly and shoot fire, like I can but without lighting yourself on fire."

"I don't know. I've never tried it."

Before Crystal knew it, a few days had passed and Tony talked her into trying it. She managed to lift into the air and conjured a flame in one hand. The flame was bigger than what she normally made, more a stream of fire than a fireball, and she wasn't as steady in the air as she usually was but for a few seconds, she did it. Then she flew backwards into a wall, the fire vanishing entirely. "That was awesome."

"I'm never doing that again."

"If you say so." They both laughed.

When Tony asked Maximus what his power was, the prince told him he didn't have one, that he was human. "That's impossible. Your nearest human relative died a few thousand years ago, right?" Maximus nodded and Tony, oblivious to his discomfort, pressed on "Maybe you don't have powers but there's no way that Terrigenesis took away your Inhuman genes, you'd turn to goop without those genes. I mean, I don't really understand genetics but from what I do understand, your family has a history of powerful Inhumans, meaning most of your genes are Inhuman. You wouldn't exist without those genes. Maybe you're not super powerful like your brother but you still have Inhuman genes, you have to. If they think Terrigenesis made you human, why not send you to Earth like they did mom? if you have no powers, you can blend in and you're smart enough to find someone acceptable to the Council. It just doesn't make sense to me." Then he moved on but he never stopped insisting Maximus was Inhuman, that he couldn't be human because that made no sense. His insistence that the Council was wrong to declare Maximus human helped him stay friends with the younger Boltagon brother, helped him repair his friendship after pushing Maximus through the portal to Earth decades later. "You should look a lot older than you do. Your hair should be turning grey, your skin should start getting wrinkly, especially around the eyes. You're aging like an Inhuman not a human." It had never occured to Maximus to use his physical appearance to argue his Inhuman status, he didn't look like Triton or Gorgon but Tony was right, as per usual, he did not look like a human his age should. After getting his cousin and Original Science Bro back on his side, Tony read Maximus in on the threat to come and they discussed what to do about the imminent alien invasion.

Young Tony Stark really did not want to leave Attilan, Medusa found him sulking after he finished most of his training. The boy was usually so excitable with the energy to rival Crystal on a sugar high, sulking did not suit him. "What's wrong?"

"I have to go back to Earth when I finish my training, right? Pretend to be human, pretend superpowers only exist in stories. I mean, I get why I have to do it. My dad's oblivious sometimes but he's not a moron. He'll eventually realize I haven't been bothering him about tagging along on his find-Cap missions or getting in the way in his lab."

"That's not what happens."

"How do you know?"

"Your mom told me."

"What?"

"Your father was chosen, I know it's hard to think-"

"No, I get it. I don't understand why Maximus wasn't sent on the same mission if he's so good at passing for human but I understand mom's mission. Maximus told me that the Genetic Council worried that if they kept matching up Inhumans the way they've been doing it then eventually they'll have a kingdom of Black Bolts and Maximuses, super powerful people whose genes cannot be spread and Inhumans with either no power or useless powers. I get why mom was chosen and why you needed to expand the genepool, I get it, it's not hard to understand. Finding out how mom forged an entire identity built on a single lie, that was more of a challenge."

"Okay. Your father was chosen because of his intelligence, not his people skills. Your mom told me that he rambles about you sometimes, goes on and on about how proud he is of you until other people really wish he'd shut up."

"Dad's proud of me?"

"You built a circuit board at age four. I may not understand the full implications of that but it's my understanding that circuit boards are usually built by adults who have special training and you did it before you even started school."

"Yeah."

"Your dad doesn't understand people. Your mom was chosen for the mission partly because the Council knew she could adapt to Earth well. They were very careful in their selection, genes weren't the only thing they took into consideration."

"Okay."

Medusa made a decision "How would you like to learn Black Bolt's language?" Tony visibly perked up at that.

Tony was fascinated by Triton and after spending about half of his free time in Maximus' lab each day for half a week, the young inventor had something for his fishy cousin. Technically, Gorgon and his mother were on one side of the royal family while Triton, Karnak, Crystal and Medusa were on the other with Black Bolt and Maximus in the middle. At least, that's how Tony understood it and that meant he was Black Bolt's cousin but not really Triton or Karnak's. Then again, all Inhumans descended from the same tribe of humans so weren't they all cousins? Tony had decided early on, after the explanation of what an Inhuman was, that he was gonna call everyone in the family his cousin, except his mom and Uncle G, because that made his head spin a whole lot less even if it wasn't the most accurate.

When he presented Triton with his creation, the green man asked "What is it?"

"I haven't thought of a name yet, I'm not really good at naming things." Tony explained "There's water vapor in the air, it's always there, even I'd feel it if it was gone. This," he pointed to the front of the device, "sucks in air and this," he ran his hand over the back of the device, "Discharges the vapor with a little extra oxygen. I designed it so you could wear it to stay hydrated since you're semi-aquatic. It's just a prototype, I used Maximus' lab and he's working more on stun guns than anything else. I kinda want to steal some of his designs and reverse engineer them on Earth, create a line of non-lethal weapons."

Triton held the device over his chest, "It goes here, right?"

"Right."

The scaly Inhuman put the device on and felt it stick. A few moments passed before he felt the device working, the dryness he had grown accustomed to began to leave him. "What about hydrator for a name?"

"Works for me."

"This is really something."

"It works, right? I wasn't sure-"

"It works very well. Thank you, Tony."

"No problem." Tony thought of something. "While I did design it to go on your chest, you could wear the hydrator anywhere it'll stick. I mean, your arms and legs are out as options but if you don't have gills that need to be submerged then anywhere it'll stick should work."

"How does it stick?"

"The edge where the bottom meets the side has the same kind of suction as the front, I made it that way so that the water vapor doesn't condense and start dripping off you. Maximus helped me make it so he can perform maintenance on it, make any adjustments that need to be made. Like I said, it's a prototype. Just because it's working really well now doesn't mean the machine is perfect."

"Tony, water is hard to come by up here. You understand that, right?"

"I've heard that but water is all around us, it seemed stupid to me that you should struggle because Terrigenesis turned you into a fish man when we're all surrounded by water. Y'know, that gives me an idea. Maybe I can make something like this for Earth. There are places on Earth that don't get a lot of rain, which makes water hard to come by. Maybe I could make something like this but bigger to filter out the vapor in the air. The filter I already made for this could also help people in places where the water is contaminated and useless. I'll talk to Maximus about making a bigger hydrator to fix Attilan's water shortage. Thanks for the idea."

"No problem."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just made Tony a 12 year old philanthropist, that just kinda happened but it works, don't you think? Feedback always welcome


	23. Vision

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The government gets scared, Tony almost does something stupid

Tony ran through the palace, looking for "Uncle G."

"What's wrong, Tony?"

"Vision, he, they took him. They're trying to say he's an object, a weapon. I mean, I could sling in and get him but not, I don't know-"

"Tony, start from the beginning."

"The government took Vision, SI's lawyers just barely stopped them before they started taking him apart but the government won't let us check on him. Rhodey saw him because Vision's a Defender and Rhodey went to give them a copy of his personnel file but he couldn't talk to Vision. They won't even let him have a lawyer because they're saying he's a thing. I could sling in and get him but then what?"

"Breathe, T, breathe. Let’s find Karnak, he's a lot smarter than I am. Breathe with me, T." Feeling stupid, Gorgon said "Z Y X." Tony continued reciting the alphabet backwards, calming down as he put effort into speaking clearly and working backwards. Once he started calming down, Gorgon called Karnak on his wrist communicator "Where are you?"

"In the garden."

Tony was calm enough to tell Karnak the story on the first try. "But Vision's not a thing and arguing that after he's paid taxes is just a stupid waste of time."

"Agreed. What do you want to do?"

"Sling in and take him-" Tony's phone went off. He read the message. "Never mind. Pepper got him out."

"Call him then take time to meditate." Tony remembered how hilarious his friends thought that him meditating after dealing with the Mandarin was but it worked, he successfully self-treated his PTSD just like he did in the 80s. The phone call reassured him. "They need me and Crystal to sign some paperwork as his parents to solidify his claim of personhood. He technically has four creators but at the time of his creation, Crystal and I were legal American citizens. Stress and Bruce still don't mix and this would be one helluva way to find out Ross screwed with his citizenship. Helen's a foreign citizen who wasn't present at Vision's birth, which kind of eliminates her motherhood claim. Crystal Ames and Anthony Stark sign as his parents and he'll automatically retain American citizenship the same way I automatically got American citizenship when I was born."

Karnak said "Breathe. Meditate for an hour then sling to Crystal and take her to get the paperwork done. Americans typically have three names, think about what you want Vision's legal name to be."

"Right."

Karnak walked him through meditation just like he had when the younger man was newly Inhuman. Tony calmed down in the hour they were meditating. He called Crystal before slinging back down to Earth. They met with SI's legal team, signed all the necessary paperwork, and helped Vision through his own meeting with legal. The artificial human was perplexed by how swiftly his personhood had been disregarded out of convenience and wondered what he could have done to clarify his status. Both his parents and lawyers stressed how it wasn’t his fault.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In Breaking The Team, I got special Kudos for giving Vision a mom. Here we have more of that. Please review


	24. Fast Friends

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Reed, Tony and Victor work together on something very important for the future but not relevant to the invasion prep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In chapter 2 of Tiny!Tony by TheSovereigntyofReality, it's explained that Tony was put in the spotlight from a very young age because the press was more likely to accept mistakes from a kid and expect perfection from an adult. That inspired this

Tony was supervising Reed and Victor while Sue was watching their sons, who had become friends after Franklin's seventh birthday party. For the most part, the two men in front of him seemed content to one up each other. Ben was out, he had been invited to some sports event as part of some PR stunt, Tony could barely remember who did the inviting but he was sure he'd see it on the news. Since Attilan officially showed itself to the world, Crystal spent more time on the moon than Earth some weeks. She and Tony had the most PR training and understood politics the best out of their entire family. That thought made Tony realize something, "Guys?"

"What, Johnny/Tony?" asked the two rivals.

"Have you thought about how you're going to introduce your sons to the world?" When the two men turned to him, Tony silently directed Herbie to deal with their experiments, both of which could be highly volatile and neither man needed to survive another explosion, that would probably only prompt another out of control debate.

"What do you mean?" asked Reed.

Victor wore a smug grin as he asked "What did you have in mind?"

Answering Reed first, Tony said "I know he's only a kid but Franklin's going to be one of us someday. That's probably why Sue wasn't happy with us making him a suit. It's better to start preparing him for life in the spotlight now. Mom knew that if we waited until I was an adult to introduce me to the press then they would expect perfection, which is why my parents went public with my first circuit board when I was four. The younger you are, the more forgiving the media is. Franklin's still young enough for them to accept his mistakes as mistakes. Kristoff's about the same age so he should be fine. You don't want your kids to wind up in Queen Medusa's position, where they emphasize the slightest character flaws and make them out to be mortal sins." Then he turned to Doom, "I was thinking you could bring Kristoff to the next UN gala the Four get invited to, Reed and Sue will bring Franklin. We can play up your rivalry with Reed to make their friendship all the more heartening. If we wait until they're both in double digits, people will start drawing Romeo & Juliet analogies, making von Doom and Richards the modern day version Montague and Capulet. You and I have press training, we can help the kids learn from little mistakes."

"Sounds like a plan."

"Does Kristoff have an appropriate suit?"

"Does Franklin?"

"Yes."

"I'll get one for Kristoff."

"Herbie can take his measurements and I can text them to you so you don't have to play the why game at the tailor's."

"Excellent idea."

At the event, Tony and Crystal headed off the press. "What do you say to rumors that you have claimed the Vision as your son?"

"No comment."

Reed sent Franklin ahead to distract the press, who were fixated on Vision having parents. Tony wasn't sure when the official announcement would be going out but he strongly suspected Vision's taxes would be part of the argument towards his personhood. He also knew that the government hadn't given up on declaring his son a WMD to be dismantled so he was going to avoid commenting to keep his cool, lest he blow up and make things harder on Vision. When the press turned their attention to the adorable duo that Kristoff and Franklin made, Tony and Crystal escaped inside. Crystal whispered in Tony's ear "Why aren't we commenting?"

"The court case." They caught up with Black Bolt and Medusa, intercepting Vision along the way. Tony smiled at his son "Real quick you're American not of Attilan and it's impolite to refuse a lady a dance unless you're in a relationship. Since word has gotten around that I signed as your father, expect people to try to use you to get an in with SI. Do not make any official statements about your case and do not respond to rumors. Try to politely steer conversations away from those topics. You have to be polite, a perfect gentleman really, until your case is settled. Alright?"

"Yes, I understand."

"Great, I need to clarify one thing." Tony asked Medusa "Are we counting him as your illegitimate nephew or distancing Ames from Amaquelin?"

"The first one."

"Okay." Tony checked "Viz, you know why I said that?"

"Yes."

"We're all set."

They did not enjoy the night but at least Reed and Victor limited their one-upping to bragging about their sons. Sue wanted a stiff drink at the end of the night but she didn't have a strong urge to strangle her husband so the night was overall a win.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Vision's issues hijacked this story. Lemme know what you think about the results


	25. Leverage

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You do not mess with Starks

The Fantastic Four were hosting Gorgon and Louise when they were called in to assist the Defenders. Tony asked "Lethal force authorized?"

"They appear to be robots so yes." A video feed of the fight came up "Vision does not appear to be operating at maximum power or efficiency."

"Reed, call it," said Sue as Tony said "I'll deal with that when we get back."

Reed said "Sue, you get the Defenders clear, I'll work crowd control. Ben, Johnny, you're on offense and cover."

"So the usual," concluded Ben as Johnny opened a portal and his team went charging through.

Johnny tossed Reed his ring before calling "Flame on!" Being a genius engineer, Johnny could instantly spot the weak points in the giant robots and took full advantage while Ben provided a distraction. When the 'bots started falling at a bad angle, Johnny said "Little help!" as he tried to burn them to shift their teetering weight. The Thing moved to cover the Invisible Woman and she pushed the bots towards each other with her forcefields, enabling Johnny to melt them together.

Once the robots were dealt with, the Invisible Woman, the Thing and the Human Torch focused on helping the Defenders, Mr. Fantastic liaising with the police. Quietly, Tony promised to fix things for Vision and apologized to JARVIS for abandoning him, both AIs were much too understanding. As the quinjet took off, the three heroes took a moment to breathe before moving to join their official team leader. Sue was scary efficient in dealing with the police, Reed subtly returning Johnny's Sling Ring. In no time, they were back home, Johnny instructing Herbie to call whoever is spearheading the case against Vision. "I'm not gonna waste my breath asking you to be reasonable. My son has paid taxes, he has been a Defender since before the Avengers became the Defenders, he is a citizen, a person. As I said, I'm not gonna waste my breath anymore. Plenty of eyes were on today's fight, I will tell the world why Vision was not working at full capacity when I announce that the Fantastic Four are going on hiatus and that Attilan is going to take a neutral stance on planetary defense. In case you missed the memo, my son is Queen Medusa's nephew. You have until end of business day tomorrow to formally and publicly announce that your case has fallen through, to admit the overwhelming evidence that he is a person who deserves the same rights as everyone else born in the USA and don't even think about lying, I'll know. Just to be crystal clear, the Defender best known as Vision was afraid of presenting himself as a weapon while attempting to prove such attacks on his personhood false. Unlike you, I am not unreasonable. If you do this, I will suggest that you be placed on one of the oversight committees for planetary defense, perhaps you could help with the logistics of letting Earth's protectors cross borders in an emergency without breaking the law. We have no idea where the next invasion will take place, we need to be able to reach the battlefield in a reasonable time frame but we don't want terrorists using the channels that must be opened for that to happen. Am I understood?"

"Yes, Dr. Stark."

"One more thing, this phone call never happened. It won't appear in your phone records, there will be no recording of it if you happen to have your phone bugged. You just saw what your case is doing to one of Earth's Mightiest Heroes and decided that could not stand. If this decision earns you a place overseeing Earth's heroes, that's just the way it is."

"Of course." The man on the other end of the line hung up.

Crystal, who lived at the Baxter with her fiance/husband, asked "What do you think he'll do?"

Gorgon asked "What was that?!"

"Ever hear of the carrot and the stick?" At his uncle's look, Tony explained "The carrot and the stick refers to operant conditioning, the use of rewards and punishment to shape behavior. The carrot is an example of a reward, the stick is a punishment. Most of that call was spent explaining the situation, the problem behavior. By threatening to have both the Four and Attilan withdraw from planetary defense, I was showing him the stick. Then offering to recommend him for an oversight committee was like offering a carrot. If he does what I want, he'll be rewarded. If he doesn't do what I want, he will be punished. I made it perfectly clear what he is going to do and made it seem beneficial to him. Thing with the carrot and the stick is, sometimes there is no carrot. The only way I can influence who is chosen for the committee is by influencing other people. He has until five o'clock tomorrow to do what I want but I don't have any such deadline to do what he wants. Once he publicly announces that he was wrong to try to claim Vision was a weapon, he can never recant." Tony turned to his fiance/wife, "I think he'll stew on everything I said and drag his feet debating what he is going to do but ultimately I've left him with very little choice, he'll probably make the announcement with only a few hours to spare, maybe around 3-ish. My mother taught me how to read and play people, to understand them, even if I'll never understand them as well as I do machines. I used her lessons in business dealings, I use them when dealing with the press, an argument could be made that they are the foundation of my social skills. Of course the things she said made a lot more sense after I found out about Attilan."

"Of course," agreed Crystal with a smile.

As predicted, the case against Vision was dropped and the driving force behind it switched sides. With his son safe, Tony talked to Pepper and planned the downfall of the man who tried to kill said son. As he told his uncle, sometimes there is no carrot.


	26. Final Prep

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Soul Stone is found, it's almost go time

When Carol interrupted a meeting of the Inhuman Royal Family to say “Yon-Rogg is calling urgently,” they knew the situation was serious.

“Who else was visible?” Tony asked “Stark white face, humanoid but reptilian looking skin, big eyes-”

“Yes. Who-”

“Put him through.” As soon as the video projected, his head briefly caught fire and he began speaking rapidly in a language nobody in the room recognized, although they could make out the name K-Star when he gestured to Yon-Rogg. One of the beings he described answered in kind and then spoke in another strange language, prompting the Kree’s release. A demand was made and Tony answered before making an apparent suggestion. The man on the other end of the video call considered it before speaking once more in the two languages. Tony asked for something judging by the way he gestured to the family and brought his fists together, tucking his thumb on each hand into the opposing hand. The mystery alien must have granted him permission and Yon-Rogg took the device the call was made on with him when he was hustled out of the room. Tony told him “Wait a sec.” Then turned to his family “The language I just spoke was created on Mojoworld using shared words from about five dialects. If I’m not mistaken Yon-Rogg is attempting to make a deal with the Ennilux, who are isolationist to the point that outsiders learning their language is a capital crime. Ennilux, from what I know, is a culture not a species.” Turning back to Yon-Rogg, he asked “Sup, K-Star?” When the other man rolled his eyes, Tony amended “No, seriously, what the Hell?”

“As you said, I’m trying to make a deal with them. We need Infinity Stones, they have one.”

Tony took a few deep breaths “How’s your plan working out so far?”

“Our Ennilux ally did not believe I was K-Star until-”

“Why didn’t you just show him Mojo’s brand?”

“It’s gone.”

“Right. What do you think the Ennilux are doing right now?”

“Having a council meeting.”

“In case we run out of time with our own meeting,” Tony said something in the mystery language that did not sound nice before asking, “Did you ever teach anyone our language?”

“Only those from Mojoworld know it-”

“-And probably the Supreme Intelligence.”

“Yes.”

“Good. If we’re going to manage this, you gotta let your stoicism slip away, our shared language is too limited for this. You told me that the Ennilux do not tolerate outsiders, we’re lucky Mojo took a healer.”

“I know.” Yon-Rogg was taken back in and turned the camera on the Ennilux.

When he didn’t respond to the man’s gestures, Tony groaned “How did we ever-” He cut himself off and urgently barked at the Ennilux. Yon-Rogg was seized and Tony managed to explain with gestures how to position the camera.

Yon-Rogg asked “What are you thinking, Nova?”

“Strange choice of curse. Why did you lie about the language?”

“I didn’t. I translated a transmission in the language but I never taught anyone.”

“You lied about something.” After a moment, the Inhuman's eyes locked on the Kree's chest, “The brand.” Tony translated that and their ally had one of the Ennilux cut off Yon-Rogg’s shirt, revealing a star that used one of the points for half of a K.

“Interesting that it’s a Terran K.” He said something in the fused language and the healer had Yon-Rogg released, the Ennilux holding him shoved him down on his knees as they let go. Tony continued speaking and his family caught the name Thanos before he deferred to K-Star, who confirmed the threat and asked after the stone. Tony curled his fingers into a claw and used the hand to motion from his chest as though clawing at his heart while he spoke to clarify Yon-Rogg’s statement. The healer spoke in kind and asked for time, holding up one of four fingers. Tony explained to his family “We just warned them and asked for the Stone.” They saw the healer berated, taking the scorn silently. Off to the side, a cloaked man was fiddling with a knife, wearing a bracer that looked like the side of a matchbox. Suddenly he ran the knife over his bracer, muttering something, and everyone fell silent to watch him as a blue flame appeared. Seeing the man walk over to Yon-Rogg, Tony snapped off a warning in the fused language. The cloaked figure held the knife near his head and the flame turned yellow. As he moved his hand down, the flame changed color, appearing green when held in front of Yon-Rogg’s chest. With a flick of the wrist and another muttered word, the fire vanished from the knife which was then sheathed. The cloaked figure turned to the other Ennilux and gave his report. The healer passed on the news while the others merely nodded silently. Tony clarified a few things and the healer chanted “Flame,” pronouncing the word as flam-eh.

“Flame on,” answered Tony lifting slightly off the ground as fire covered his body. Most of the Ennilux looked on in shock and awe. Tony asked the healer why and got a response he didn’t totally understand, deferring to “K-Star?”

“The guy with the knife is a prophet, Helix wanted him to see your power in action.”

Tony extinguished himself “Do not go native on me, K-Star. When you have the Stone, bring it to Terra.”

“You’ve made the plan clear, to Helix at least.”

“Okay. Am I missing anything?” Yon-Rogg thought about it before shaking his head. “End the call and get to work.” Yon-Rogg nodded, doing as asked.

Carol asked “What the-?”

“Process of elimination tells us they have the Soul Stone. We actually got lucky there. What are the odds the Ennilux tribe that guards the Stone Stone counts the healer Mojo abducted as one of their own? Or that their prophet would support Yon-Rogg’s claim on the Stone?”

Shaking her head, Carol said “I’ve never heard of an outsider communicating with an Ennilux. They have a tendency to kill anyone who tries.”

“Again, we got lucky with Helix- not his real name, just what we call him.” Tony explained “Ennilux are forbidden from contact with outsiders but Helix didn’t have a choice on Mojoworld. As a healer, he’s forbidden from killing. He avoided us until he realized we were on the side of life, not an easy thing to show when you’re stuck in the role of gladiator but we managed it. We got lucky a few times on Mojoworld but the odds were never in our favor.”

“That language,” began Gorgon.

“After my first fight with him, which is where I became Mojo’s champion, Yon-Rogg was stuck in the quarters Mojo gave me with a device that kept him from attacking me. Once the Kree got it through his head that I didn’t understand a word he was yelling at me or what was going on, he calmed down. I wound up melting the device that made him go flying backwards every time he tried to attack me, along with the cameras Mojo had set up. Yon-Rogg decided, shortly after getting a read on our situation, that he was going to teach me two things: the Kree language and how to fight. I chose to screw with him on both counts until I realized Kree had several shared words with other languages.”

“Shared words,” his uncle prompted.

“No means the same thing in English and Spanish, making it what I call a shared word. After learning Carbonell is an Italian surname, my mother learned the language. It is a scientific fact that children raised in bilingual households have an easier time learning new languages later in life. When I realized Kree shared several words with other alien languages, just by observing Yon-Rogg communicate with other alien species, I backed off on screwing with his lessons in Kree. I’d say the word, show I understood it then repeat it with fewer syllables. K-Star played along to get me to focus on his combat lessons then he got pulled out for something and I shot off one of the shortened words. After that, the language grew quickly because the guy who actually spoke multiple alien languages was actively working to make our new language work for multiple alien races. It was my idea but Yon-Rogg is the real architect.”

Crystal asked “What is the plan?”

“We’re basically playing a huge game of keep away to prevent Thanos from getting what he needs to enact his genocidal plan. We now know where four of the Stones are, maybe five. Asgard has at least one, Earth has two, Yon-Rogg is in the process of getting one.”

“And the other two?” prompted Karnak.

“Asgard has at least one, although two have been given to them- Space and Reality. From our alien briefings, we know the Power Stone was almost used by Ronan the Accuser to wipe out the planet Xandar but we don’t know where it went after his defeat. Either Space or Reality and Power are MIA but we know where the rest are.”

Carol said “I might be able to get the Power Stone.”

“You know the Guardians?”

“I can definitely look for them but I was thinking I’d go to Xandar and ask.”

“Remember, once all six are in play, we’ll be in Endgame. No more prep time. Notify the Nova Corps but wait until Soul is secure. We’ll want to secure Power and whichever Stone is on Asgard once we have Soul, that will give us five to Thanos’ possible one.”

“Right.”

Tony asked Maximus “Are the Gauntlets ready?”

“Yes,” answered the psychic.

“Did they pass the test?”

“Yes.”

“Good. We’re nearing Endgame, final prep time. I need to borrow you for another project or two.” Maximus nodded. Tony asked “Is there anything else of note we need to cover?” His family shared a few looks among themselves before deciding that there was nothing urgent enough to supersede Thanos prep. Crystal, Maximus and Tony took Lockjaw to the Baxter Building before Tony opened a portal to Stark Tower, “Am I still allowed in here?”

“Of course,” answered Vision as he met the two Inhuman engineers, “Is something wrong?”

“We’re nearing Endgame, the Soul Stone has just been found by one of our allies. Maximus is going to help me with some final prep.” Tony stopped to look his son in the eye, “To be clear, we are not in Endgame but we’re nearing it, this is final prep time.” After the two Inhumans continued on to Tony’s workshop, Vision passed on Tony’s message then left to join Doctor Strange, following protocol by getting both Infinity Stones in position to move out as soon as Endgame was declared.

They had decided to use Endgame as the signal to get everyone on high alert, ready to roll out at a moment’s notice. Final prep time was another official signal, any project that wasn’t near completion was to be abandoned for those that were almost finished and their various government contacts were to get ready. If they didn’t get as much warning as they expected, those contacts would have to scramble evacuation orders and send people in to help local authorities carry out the order. In some places, there were efforts to keep a close eye on the population so that packages could be delivered to homes in a lockdown that would sustain the people inside. Everyone was as ready as they could be and now they were finalizing plans.

Meanwhile, Carol notified Rhodes that she would be off-world during final prep and left to make contact with their alien allies who had established bases on outer planets in Earth's solar system before flying to Xandar to get the Nova Corps ready. She was told where the Power Stone went and parked her ship in the empty space around Knowhere to wait for Yon-Rogg’s signal. Talos would relay the Kree’s message to Earth and thus bring them closer to Endgame, he also had to direct Yon-Rogg to the other Infinity Stones.

Upon receiving the signal, Carol went to the Collector’s shop. She brought Goose with her, they had made several plans that involved her Flerken companion swallowing another Infinity Stone. Flerkens were rare enough that Taneleer Tivan’s annoyance at being disturbed quickly evaporated upon seeing one. “How may I help you, Captain?”

“I’d like to borrow any Infinity Stones you have. I have reason to believe that the Mad Titan is pursuing them, destroying anything that stands between him and the Stones.”

“You want to take from my collection?”

“Borrow. I need bait to draw the Titan away from your collection because he will destroy your collection to get what he wants.”

The Collector asked “What assurance do I have that you will return the Stone?” Goose jumped up on his desk and sprawled out on his inventory.

“Flerkens rarely consume what they eat, I intend to ask him to transport the Stone. You will simply have to wait for him to return it after Thanos is defeated.” The thought of having a Flerken, even temporarily, was too tempting. Carol signalled she had one of the Stones before flying to meet with the other three they had secured. “Goose has the fourth Stone.”

“The Flerken swallowed the Stone, of course.” Yon-Rogg confirmed “Our allies are in position. Asgard has yet to answer inquiries as to whether they have any of the remaining Stones.”

Vision asked “Is there a chance that Asgard has already fallen to Thanos?”

Yon-Rogg nodded “It is possible. Asgard does not have many allies in the wider galaxy, Asgardians think of themselves as Gods. Their arrogance means that they would never admit to needing aid, much less seek it out.”

“The Kree, historically, aren’t much better,” said Tony as he joined them through a portal, accompanied by a drone armor carrying a crate and Maximus.

“What is that?” asked Yon-Rogg.

“Our projects.” The armor set down and opened the crate, “These Gauntlets are designed to channel a single Stone each, that is what Maximus has been working on since we began preparing for Thanos. He made six in case Thanos manages to steal one of ours. Maximus helped me modify the armor to take hits from an Infinity Stone using the same principles as the Gauntlets, hopefully we won’t need it. The rest of this stuff is for containment. We need to get it set up before we enter Endgame.” Vision offered to help and Goose decided to assist by digging holes in the ground so they could plant the small devices where they would not be seen. Once everything was in place, Tony sent the crate itself back and put the armor on sentry duty. “What do we have left? Two Stones then we’re in Endgame?”

“Yes,” confirmed Yon-Rogg. “You have hardly changed.”

“I was a teenager when we met, I hope I’ve changed a bit.”

“Not really. You still hide who you truly are and you do it well.”

“How long did it take you to figure out I was screwing with you and your lessons?”

“I knew when you saved my life.”

“How’s that?”

“You showed maturity.”

“Which ruined my immature act.”

“Yes.”

Tony shrugged “Fair enough.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Since the Kree contacted Carol with an offer of working together, they made themselves Earth's go-to for all things alien. Yon-Rogg being known by both Carol and Tony was the obvious choice, from their perspective, for a liaison. From there, he was able to get the job of coordinator. Aliens like the Kree who fear Thanos, aliens from planets he's halved and allies of these two kinds of aliens are all banding together to make sure he falls. This will make for a very different Battle For the Earth than we saw in the MCU.


	27. Endgame

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Time to fight Thanos

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Anyway you slice it, Thanos comes when he's ready not when Earth is ready. At least in this universe, they know he's coming

Once everything was in place, Tony returned to Attilan to consult a prophet. “Bronaja, right?”

“Uh, yessir.”

“I was wondering if,” Tony held his hand out, “I mean, it’s my understanding that you have a touch triggered danger sense and that your visions are usually centered around whoever you touch. I know seers can’t always tell people what they see, lest we try to prevent it and make things worse, but if you could, I’d appreciate it.”

Bronaja took his hand and Tony watched him seize before informing him, “I saw you on a cliff, you fell off.”

“Okay. Thank you very much.” The Human Torch joined his Inhuman family, “I know how we’re gonna win this.”

“How?” asked Crystal. In response, Tony smiled enigmatically and put a hand on Lockjaw, filling them in once they arrived at the Baxter.

Victor von Doom was waiting with the rest of the Four by the Fantasticar, “We’re not taking the car, we’re taking a portal. I can’t believe I’m saying this but we don’t want things blowing up. Victor, make sure your Doombots are ready to deploy containment. I have a plan but it won’t work if we’re all over the place on the battlefield. The aliens get the guerrilla warfare, we’re going to be a bit old fashioned.”

Sue nodded “I assume you have a reason for the change of plans.”

“I’ve heard from two different seers how this is gonna play out. We don’t want anyone on the wrong side of our ace in the hole.”

Victor asked “Can you tell me-”

“Herbie, send Doom a copy of the map Maximus and I made today.”

“On it, Johnny.”

Victor must have viewed it on his HUD because he nodded. Reed said “I think we’re all set to move out.”

Tony turned and opened a portal, “This is a few yards back from the line I need Victor to hold. Black Bolt, Crystal and I will be portalling straight to Strange to get our Stones in position.” The others went through then Tony gave Crystal his Sling Ring, “I don’t want to risk melting it since the Masters only lent us these rings.” She nodded and opened a portal where he told the others they’d be. Tony briefed the team leads gathered around Strange on part of the plan, telling Yon-Rogg “Tell your armies to stay off-world to avoid confusion then give our people anything you have that can be used to track. If anyone knows where you went, we risk Thanos figuring things out.”

“Understood.”

James Rhodes asked “Are you sure you know what you’re doing?”

“I consulted two Inhuman seers. First rule of time travel,”

“Knowledge prompts change yet change negates knowledge,” Rhodes and Stark said in unison.

“That’s right. I think I know how this ends but if I tell you guys, you may jeopardize that.”

Everyone moved into position, two remote control armors came to pick up Crystal and Black Bolt so that they could hide in plain sight. Tony did a com check just as Yon-Rogg reported the alien armies were successfully decimating Thanos. Carol followed that up by saying “Refugee ship incoming.”

Reed voiced everyone’s confusion, “Refugees?”

“Asgardian, their civilians were taken to an allied base but the warriors are insisting on assisting.”

“Direct them to the back of the line.”

“Already done. Asgardians gave confirmation, Thanos has two Stones.”

Stephen said “We are in Endgame now.” A click was heard over coms, “What was that?”

Tony answered “You engaged the automated filter. Before sharing important information, use some variation of all combatants or everyone, the automated filter will broadcast your message on all coms. Otherwise, we’ll hear what we normally hear.”

“Alright.”

“The filter will also broadcast anything it deems important after a brief delay, sorry if there’s an echo from that. Real quick, if you need to tell our Kree coordinator anything and you don’t want to tell everyone, use the name K-Star to establish a secure two way line. Addressing a message changes who receives it. I programmed Yon-Rogg in as K-Star to keep with using everyone’s codenames. Sorry, Commander.”

“Not a problem.”

“K-Star,” his com stopped broadcasting to everyone, _“No fear, no glory!”_ The motto of the Mojoworld rebellion brought an unwilling smile to the Kree’s face as he returned the sentiment. Everyone lapsed into a tense silence, waiting. Tony was the only one outside the line the Doombots were holding, as far as most of his allies knew. The silence was broken by the formation of a portal, Tony called over coms “Everyone, hold position.” Thanos stepped out of the portal, alone.

Maximus fired up the devices buried around the battlefield, “Torch, we need time for this to work.”

“Max, I know.” Turning to Thanos, Tony maintained a relaxed stance, “So you’re the guy who tortured Loki and sent an army to destroy New York? To be honest, I’m kind of disappointed. You’re, well, you’re big but you’re not what I think of when I think of a Titan. To be fair, the Titans from ancient Terran lore were described as giants.”

“Stark.”

“You know my name?” Tony said “Wait, you know that name? I would’ve thought you’d call me Nova Flame or Iron Man, maybe Human Torch.”

“You’re not the only one cursed with knowledge.”

“I am cursed to know exactly how this plays out.”

“You have my respect, Stark. When I’m done, half of humanity will still be alive. I hope they remember you.”

Tony was tempted to spill the beans, to boast about how Thanos is doomed to fail but he was pretty sure Maximus still needed more time. Unfortunately, Thanos was done talking. The Iron Legion moved to protect him, the Doombots continuing to hold the line after Karnak told Victor not to let anyone through. Thanos used the Space Stone to bring most of the armors down and Reality to destroy them. Tony asked “Why can’t mortal enemies ever discuss things like adults?”

Thanos told him “Your allies have abandoned you.”

“No, I told them to keep back.” Tony explained “Before facing you today, I consulted two prophets. One told me a tale of death and the inevitable, the other told me one of sacrifice and uncertainty. Together they paint a rather bleak picture and these two seers have yet to meet.”

The ground beneath him shot up as the armor containing Black Bolt dropped him off, the hum of a containment field accompanied the king’s word. Both Thanos and the pillar were obliterated, an armor flying down to catch Tony, who used the Gauntlets to collect the two Infinity Stones before stepping out to catch Crystal’s embrace. Over coms, Yon-Rogg directed Strange and Vision to follow his lead. The three men joined the three Inhumans, Goose not far behind. Maximus directed Infinity Stone wielders to do the same, grabbing Karnak’s shoulder and running forward. The Doombots must have known who was cleared to handle the Stones because they let those people through while barring everyone else access. Medusa asked “What does this barrier do?”

Leading the Earth Inhumans over, Auran answered “Blocks teleportation.” Reading the confusion hidden in the royals’ glares, she pointed to a man with no eyes “Gordon can teleport around the globe. When he tried to teleport to Tony, he bounced off the barrier. It’s probably there to ensure our alien allies don’t try to double cross us and steal the Stones now that Thanos has been dealt with.”

Gorgon, who had visited the island and thus made the most progress towards forgiving her, said “That makes sense but why are the Doombots still not letting us through?”

“Because they’re robots. They’re given a command and obey it. They don’t have the sentience to recognize nuances.” Seeing she was getting nowhere, Auran switched tracks. “They were told to stand in a certain place and not let anyone pass so they did. After Thanos was destroyed, the Doombots’ orders were adjusted. Now they will not let anyone who isn’t on a certain list pass. Only the people who have an Infinity Stone or were chosen to wield one are on that list. For everyone else, the Doombots are still holding the line.”

Gorgon nodded thoughtfully, “What happens once the Stones are dealt with?”

“If I had to guess, Doom will send his Doombots home and the battle will be over.”

“That was pretty anticlimactic.”

“Because we had good allies. Thanos is the only one who made it planetside, his army was destroyed before it could reach the planet.”

Medusa said “We still have to deal with the Kree.”

“Won’t K-Star just leave once the Stones are dealt with?” asked Auran.

“We made a deal with the Kree.” Triton looked at Medusa for permission before explaining, “In exchange for allowing them to use Tony’s reputation and helping them get control of the alliance set up to fight Thanos, they agreed to take the Monolith back and stay away from Attilan.”

“Thanos recognized Tony Stark, I’m guessing his reputation carries a lot of power.”

“He saved the galaxy before,” explained Gamora as the Guardians joined them. “There was a warlord called Mojo who abducted people and forced them to fight in gladiatorial games, destroying the loser’s homeworld. Nova Flame, as many know your Tony Stark, was briefly his champion. Unlike most, he often refused to kill his opponents and convinced Mojo not to destroy their homeworld. The last match ever broadcast was between Mojo and Nova Flame. Shortly after the fight, Mojo’s entire operation was destroyed. The weapons he had aimed at his gladiators' homeworlds self-destructed. Word was that Nova Flame set them to self-destruct. Then as Iron Man, he destroyed a significant portion of Thanos’ Chitauri army and stopped him from acquiring the Space Stone. Before that, Thanos was seen as unstoppable. Now this, as Tony Stark, he is the architect of Thanos’ ultimate defeat. In short, he is a legend throughout the galaxy.”

“Heroes always get remembered but you know legends never die,” sang the man himself as the Inhumans regroup, “Vision and Strange are arguing with Yon-Rogg about not leaving Earth. I’ll have to get back to that in a moment but first,” he turned to Gordon “You should take someone who can see and brief Raina on recent events.” The man nodded and put a hand on a Latina woman, vanishing in a blink. Tony turned to his family “Does everyone who knows how to use a Sling Ring have one?” He received nods from everyone except Triton, who did not answer because his dealings with Atlantis had cost him the opportunity to learn how to Sling. “Get ready. We’re almost done here.” He ran back to the group of wielders and keepers, “Time for the Kree to pay the piper.”

Yon-Rogg ceased his argument and nodded shortly, calling for a Kree transport to pick up the Monolith. When the ship became visible in the sky, Crystal raised the Monolith out of the ground, keeping a piece of Earth underneath it to carry it up to the waiting Kree. The makeshift platform returned to the ground and vanished just as the ship left to take the Monolith to another galaxy, as per the Kree’s arrangement with the Inhumans. Yon-Rogg began, “Stark-”

Tony held his hand up, “No. Here is what happens next, we will allow the Stones to decide where they will go and then my cousin will erase their locations from everyone’s minds to ensure nobody can pick up where Thanos left off. Once that is done, you and every other member of the various alien armies who have allied with Earth will leave. Assuming Thanos’ forces have been dealt with, you will all return home. If your governments want to deal with Earth, they will maintain the channels of communication already in place after informing us of their intention. The Asgardians may stay as refugees. Am I clear?”

“Yes,” answered Yon-Rogg. Stephen put the Time Stone in a Gauntlet to confirm the Eye was its preferred place. Once the Stones were all dispersed, most using the Space Stone, Maximus and Vision worked together to erase their locations from the keepers/wielders’ memories. Yon-Rogg moved outside the barrier to return to his ship and send all of the various aliens packing.

At that point, Tony called it “And that’s Endgame.” Everyone heard the click from the coms returning to normal and the barrier fell once the departing ships cleared Earth space. The various heroes trained in the use of Sling Rings spread out to portal everyone home. Tony moved over to the Asgardian contingent with Vision, “I’m sorry you came here for no reason. Captain Marvel informed us that you were refugees. There is a process through which you may be able to claim one of the uninhabited planets in this system. Tell me, are your civilians on Mars? Mars is the planet nearest this one.”

“No, they are not,” answered Loki. “How would we go about claiming the planet our civilians are currently staying on?”

“First, I’ll file a petition on your behalf for temporary asylum on an uninhabited island. Those of you here today should make camp on that island to support the petition. Using that, I will arrange a meeting with our leaders wherein you may formally request the right to legally claim the planet. Since you’re not on Mars, the request will likely be granted. After that, you will have a planet but since you are not native to this solar system, your new home will be considered a colony by most of the galaxy for a very long time. That won’t change your standing in most matters but you may be reminded of the fact that you lost your original home by politicians.”

“When you say colony-”

“It will be seen as an Asgardian colony not a colony of Midgard but in time, people will view it the same as they had your original home as the original Asgard becomes ancient history.”

“Thank you.”

“You still have to convince humans to give up land, even if it’s land they don’t use, that’s no small feat. If you would return to your ship, Vision will show you to an uninhabited island, make camp and stay there until your meeting with Earth leaders and get used to using the name Earth when referring to Midgard, that will make a good impression.”

Thor said “We shall,” leading his people back to the ship. Vision flew ahead to guide them.

Tony rejoined his family once again “We’ll probably have a lot of meetings in the near future but I gotta say, I’m happy with how easy that was. If not for our alien allies, I’m not sure we would’ve won but this was nice, it wasn’t New York the Sequel like I was afraid it might be. I think we’re done for the day.”

The Fantastic Four, Crystal and Victor von Doom all went back to the Baxter while the rest of the Inhuman Royal Family returned to Attilan. Victor took Kristoff to the Latverian embassy while Tony took care of the immediate post-battle reports and other logistics to lower the planet’s DEFCON setting. “I don’t feel like I’ve done enough to be this tired,” he told Crystal.

“It’s probably the weight being lifted off your shoulders. The big crisis you’ve been preparing for has come and passed, the relief is probably relaxing.”

“Yeah, you’re right.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I need this out of the way, not to undermine the threat of Thanos, to get to some other bits of plot I have planned, namely the Avengers' last showcase and Tony's wedding.
> 
> And just as a reminder, the Avengers went defunct after most of the line up was arrested. What most stories call the Rogues or ExVengers or ScAvengers, they're just Avengers in this. I'd like to hear some feedback about the Avengers' last showcase. I have a few ideas that I want input on.  
> First, who should fight them? I want your ideas for match ups. I love Gorgon V Rogers. Maria Stark was Gorgon's sister, Tony is his nephew, Gorgon earned his place as Captain of the Royal Guard so he would have a legitimate professional reason to fight him. The others are the real wild cards. Who wants Pietro to be reformed? The Maximoff twins depowered by Vision? Any other ideas you might have would be greatly appreciated. 'Till next time


	28. Roles

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony meets with the men in his family to discuss wedding prep

Tony was just about to head up to Attilan when Herbie passed on an alert that the Avengers had escaped. With a sigh, Tony continued to his meeting. Black Bolt, Medusa and Crystal would be absent for this meeting because they were preparing his fiance for their wedding. Most of the big wedding decisions American couples had to make were taken care of by the protocols for royal weddings. Before his uncle or cousins could say anything, Tony passed on the report “Somehow Rogers’ lot escaped. Just FYI.”

Maximus said “Those idiots couldn’t take you on if you were unarmed and depowered.”

“True but they have this incredible ability to be the biggest nuisances you’ve ever seen. Not that it matters, I’m just passing on the message Herbie received. I’m not sure if we got it because the Four have the authority to apprehend them or because they tend to fixate on me. Either way, like you said, they’re no match.”

Karnak made the suggestion “Let’s focus on getting you ready for the ceremony. You seem to think weddings are cursed.”

“Curse of the Four that is. Took Reed and Sue three tries, Ben’s had two fiances that I know of get killed basically for knowing him and the second one was the daughter of a guy who used to regularly mind control us. When stuff happens five times, it’s more than a pattern.”

“You don’t think anything is going to happen,” said Maximus.

“I don’t think any troublemakers will be able to interrupt the ceremony itself but I doubt it will be for lack of trying.”

“Fair enough,” said Karnak. “Now, let’s focus on why we’re here.”

“Yeah, probably shoulda had this talk sooner.”

Gorgon said “It’s not that complicated.”

“Except it is.” Tony looked around, “You guys don’t know, do you? The UN finally got Black Bolt’s approval, I am officially the Ambassador to Earth.” He told Maximus “I’m betting he’s reinstating you as heir.”

“He already did.”

When Triton, Karnak and Gorgon turned shocked looks on the prince, Tony burst out laughing, “How are you three so in the dark?”

Gorgon shook his head, “Karnak’s right, let’s focus. Your title as Earth ambassador doesn’t change Attilan traditions.”

“Right.”

The Attilan raised Inhumans walked him through the ceremony before Gorgon finished the lesson by telling him “Since you don’t have an Inhuman father-”

“I’ll use the Petragon family crest, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Great.” Tony looked at his watch, “This went by faster than I thought it would, I still have half an hour before I have to meet with the UN’s space experts.”

“As Earth’s Ambassador, aren’t those space experts your subordinates?” asked Triton.

“I told them we’d meet in half an hour, I’ll give them that half hour.” Tony sighed “Technically, yes, I am, but they might be using this time to confer amongst themselves. I don’t want to move the meeting up and have them give me conflicting answers because they didn’t have a chance to compare notes ahead of time. The meetings go much faster if you don’t mess with the schedule.”

Triton asked “What is the meeting about?”

“I have to meet with their space experts to confirm that Asgard’s plans for the planet they’re based on won’t detrimentally affect Earth. The Asgardians will need to use magic to make some changes if they don’t want to starve. When the armies left their bases on our neighboring planets, they were kind enough to leave their food and Loki was able to transport those rations to the people awaiting the green light to start making their new homeworld more inhabitable. They’ll need to make the land farmable and they might have to adjust the atmosphere. I need to know that changes on their planet won’t cause a ripple effect that wipes out ours. If the experts I’m meeting with say it’s safe to give the Asgardians the planet then I’ll have to review how to do that in a way that both aliens and humans alike will recognize so that Asgard can begin work by the end of the week, our time, but if there are issues, I might have to negotiate terms and get Loki to put a binding enchantment on the official paperwork to make everyone keep their word.”

“Ambassador is not a fun job, I take it.”

“After the wedding, I’ll have to make frequent trips off-world to establish Earth and I’ll probably have to train deputy ambassadors when I am on Earth to handle aliens who choose to come to us. Things will settle over time, if Earth survives being in the spotlight after so long in the shadows.” Tony snapped his fingers and asked his uncle “Vision has Attilan citizenship, right?”

Gorgon nodded “You and Crystal have Attilan citizenship and Vision is underage so his citizenship defaults to yours.” He rolled his eyes at the slightly surprised looks his words received, “I have to understand how that works, it’s part of my job.”

“So you know how to verify someone’s citizenship claim, I know.” Tony said “I was asking about Vision because I know that everyone in Attilan has a file that lists their gifts. Recently, Viz has come to realize that he is not mortal.”

“What?” asked Gorgon.

“Infinity Stones are virtually impossible to destroy, Vision is a combination of AI programming and the Mind Stone. His synthetic android body does not age, which has led him to realize that he will likely appear as he does now for the rest of time. Since he has Attilan citizenship, he will need to have that added to his file.”

Maximus told Tony “Usually the Genetic Council oversees the testing for those files. I’ll set up a meeting so they can test Vision and make a file for him, even though they cannot test his DNA as they normally do.”

“That will be an interesting meeting.”


	29. Richards

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Three generations, three doppelgangers, one family name

The ground shook after Tony made his remark about Vision and soon the Inhumans were rushing to see what was happening. Gorgon called for a status update from the Royal Guard while Maximus checked on his comlink. Tony stopped suddenly and grabbed Maximus, seeing the other man struggling to get the palace security cameras to work for him. Lurching forward as the ground shook again, he whispered a suggestion in the psychic’s ear before breaking off from the others to run elsewhere. Hurrying to meet Crystal, he was intercepted by a brunette man. Without breaking stride, he jumped to kick the man in the neck, shifting his heat to his feet so they would burn the man’s skin. Slowing slightly, he used the distraction caused by the pain to swiftly knock the man out and continued on his way. He found another brunette man engaged in a battle with Crystal and Medusa, he seemed to have some way to keep Black Bolt out of the fight. Using his momentum, Tony crashed into him. The brunette managed to compensate at the last moment and instead of falling, he stretched.

Trying to compensate for the heat the Human Torch was generating without lighting up, the Reed Richards doppelganger was vulnerable to Crystal’s ice attack. Tony got up once he confirmed the man was really out and Crystal asked “What is going on?”

“Around fifty years ago, give or take, a freak accident pulled every version of one man from his universe to force him into a prize fight where the prize was survival. That man was Nathaniel Richards, the father of infinite Reeds.”

“I heard you guys mention him, he’s one of the time travelers you encountered.”

“Yes. A few Nathaniels escaped the fight due to having abilities, such as time travel capabilities. Our version- and there is a way to check- did this at a great cost to himself. He was unstable when he managed to make it back to Reed, who was an adult by the time Nathaniel got back to the right era. Losing their fathers made many versions of Reed grow up brilliant, because they naturally are, but without a social foundation. They work miracles to improve the world but they aren’t really a part of the world. Three Reeds who managed to get their hands on the Infinity Gauntlet decided to make a hall in the space between universes and formed a council. Nathaniel, from his struggles to get back to the right time period and universe, knew this and he warned us that not all versions of a person share the same morals as an individual version. When we got him in what we call a temporal disruption field, which is like a containment cell for time travelers, he explained what happened to him when Reed was a kid and gave us some insight into his alternates. According to him, many were killed in the fights and only a few escaped, meaning only a few Reeds have a chance of being reunited with their fathers. Our temporal disruption field wasn’t enough to stabilize our version of Nathaniel so he had us put him on ice. Reed and I built a cryo chamber and Nathaniel chose to go inside since the chamber was his idea to begin with.”

“Why did Reed involve you in any of that?”

“Well for the first part he didn’t have a choice. Sue and Ben were going out of their minds worrying about him so if he hadn’t let me hang around, one of them would have broken down the door and things would’ve gone down a whole lot differently. As for the second, Reed knew I could control how hot I burned so he had me help him on a lot of projects, thinking I didn’t know what we were doing. With his father, any delays could mean death for Nathaniel so again, he didn’t have much choice if he wanted to save his father.”

“Is that why they called you the Human Torch?”

“No. Oddly enough, I wasn’t even on fire when I got that name. It was said as a joke while we were trying to escape from what I think was a SHIELD facility but I’m not 100% sure since the Data Dump. I had started giving everyone codenames to avoid giving away our real names and Ben said something like “What’s that make you? The Human Torch?” Keep in mind, I couldn’t light up because the countermeasures designed to keep me from escaping amounted to dumping frigid water on me everytime my body temperature rose so I was getting ice water dumped on my head whenever I started recovering from the last dump. I was able to escape the cuffs holding me in place because they were damaged by the cold and easier to break out of after a while. Then once the room almost filled, someone had to open the door and I swam out. That someone had already drowned but thankfully, my mother convinced my father to bring me on one, just one of his Arctic expeditions so I had some tolerance to cold, enough to take care of the other guard while I worked on recovering from the ice bath.”

When the last of the family joined them, Medusa interrupted “As interesting as that is, you said that there was a council of Reed Richards.”

“Literally called the Interdimensional Council of Reeds, yeah. Since every Reed was deprived of their father, all of them have less than stellar social development. Not every Nathaniel found a way to time travel, many had no way to make arrangements before they were taken. Our version of Nathaniel made it back to his son when the Four were first active but he had grown unstable during his journey. When I say unstable, I mean physically and mentally but it’s possible the mental instability has more to do with what happened to him after he was taken away from Reed, which is to say the result of trauma. Either way, we’re dealing with a potentially infinite number of people who are usually among the top ten smartest people in their whole universe. A universe, in this case, is a combination of everything, including the various dimensions attached to the universe like the ones inhabited by monsters or used for storage by people like Loki.”

“Okay,” said Karnak slowly. “If you and your version of Reed knew about this threat, did you plan for it?”

“Sort of but the point I was making about them being among the smartest people in each part of the multiverse is that we’ve now just made a very dangerous enemy, one that makes Thanos or Mojo look like a joke. Make arrangements to leave for a few hours and take the Reeds that carried out this attack with us then let’s open a portal to the Baxter to get Ben and Herbie, I’ll disable all trackers before taking you somewhere relatively safe to wait out this lul in the war the Council of Reeds has declared on our version of Reed Richards.”

When he invited the helper bot through the portal, Herbie cheered “Wonderful. Is this Attilan?”

“Yes, it is.” Tony answered, knowing that like Reed, Herbie had a tendency to ramble. Learning AIs developed their own personalities using their base code and their surroundings, this mix of nature and nurture was very similar to human development as sentience tended to be measured in comparison to humans. Before Herbie could continue gushing, Tony fed him the codephrase that only he knew.

The expected response was given: “All GPS functions ceased,” in a robotic monotone that was a stark contrast to Herbie’s usual cheerful tone. The robot returned to normal a moment later, bouncing in the air “What are we doing here, Johnny?”

“Rendezvous. Now that we’re all here.” Tony withdrew his sling ring and opened another portal, Crystal levitated the unconscious Reeds and moved them to the empty room on the other side before everyone filed through.

Ben asked “Did you really just take us back to-”

“Yes. With Herbie here, the Council will have to take their time to access the Baxter’s systems. If the Council kills you and me, it’ll be a lot easier to convince Reed that they have Sue. In fact, they could use any version of Sue for the charade to get our Reed to work for them. You and I both know she’s safe as can be but Reed doesn’t, we can’t risk another version of him finding out what happened to her so we’re gonna have to trust that our versions of different people are unique enough that other Reeds won’t be able to figure them out. Now quiet, we only have one shot at this and I have to remember where our ace in the hole went.” Closing his eyes, he recalled the boxes that used to be stacked in the space. First, he walked to the spot near the middle of the room, closer to the wall in front of the group than behind but still almost perfectly between the side walls. Imagining a protractor at his feet, he turned about 135 degrees to his right then counted his paces as he walked backwards before stopping and turning 45 degrees to his left and counting his paces forward. Taking measured steps to the side, he sensed the heat beneath him and found the chill he was expecting. Opening his eyes, he stomped lightly on the floor “It’s under here.” Walking forward, he turned around to see amused expressions “Reed could probably do that in his head.”

Crystal extended a hand and the floorboard lifted to reveal a box of some kind. Setting the piece of flooring down against the wall, she pulled the box out before replacing the flooring, a faint click could be heard by Tony due to his proximity as the floorboard fell into place. Ben asked “What is that?”

“Cryo chamber,” answered Tony before asking, “Didn’t you ever wonder what happened to Reed’s dad?”

“You froze him?!”

“His idea and you can confirm it when he wakes up but first,” he retraced his steps to the spot where he had started moving sideways. “Crystal, can you bring him over here?” Tony moved back to the second spot he stopped at and prised the floorboard there up, revealing a computer control console. Since the base went unused for decades, there was no touch screen, the console was more like one would see in a nuclear silo. For Tony, the antiquated look was a sharp reminder of how far technology had advanced. Reaching down, he found the button to raise the platform beneath the controls, stopping when he could easily reach the controls instead of letting it come all the way up since he planned to lower it again if they had time to move underground.

Crystal asked “How does it open?” referring to the cryo chamber.

“There’s a code then press down on these catches that are like handholds to release the lock. If you enter the code wrong, the thing goes in lockdown and we’ll probably run out of time before we can try again. If you enter it correctly then the releases will be easy to hit and you’ll hear a hiss once you hit them.”

“Is there an order to the releases?” The whirring of an energy field followed her question before Tony could answer.

“First one is near the keypad on the left side, either above or below. Then there’s two on the top and one on the other side. You start at the keypad and move to the right. This was designed to be opened when a solution to Nathaniel’s affliction could be found, I found one, but Reed wasn’t sure if we would be around for that so the code just takes a little thinking to figure out. Got it?” Crystal nodded and uncovered the keypad, entering the code then hitting the releases. “Please leave the field.” She moved to join her family. “I’m going to start manipulating the field. Don’t expect me to talk much but I’ll listen.” True to his word, he didn’t speak while the rest of his family strategized with Ben, Nathaniel and Herbie. Maximus pointed out that Herbie predated Iron Man, meaning he was made when Tony was a weapons manufacturer, and got the meeting back on track after the helper bot offered his own input.

Without much warning, Tony said “Ben, stand in front of the field. Everyone, that side of the room.” The Inhumans promptly moved to stand around the Thing just before the ceiling collapsed where they had been standing. Ignoring the three Reeds floating in the air or his Reed standing off to the side, Tony waved Maximus over and quickly gave him instructions in Kree so he could take over manipulating the field. Turning his attention to the newcomers, Tony asked “What is this really about?”

The man in the center, dressed in a black and white bodysuit, sneered “What do you think you’re doing?”

“Curing Nathaniel Richards of an inherent instability he developed as a result of time travel using a temporal disruption field that has been modified to act as a temporal distortion field. What are you doing, Alpha?”

“I am here to remedy a rather large problem.”’

“What problem is that?” Tony remained perfectly calm in the face of three men each wearing an Infinity Gauntlet. “Resource crisis?”

The fourth Reed, their Reed, raised his eyebrows. Apparently he couldn’t believe that was a possible answer. One of the Reeds flanking the one Tony dubbed Alpha, this one bald with a beard, growled “You-”

“Should have never been born according to your beliefs, Fuhrer, as the grandson of a German born Jew.” Tony looked between them and smiled, “The problem isn’t here. You’re in a race against yourself. A rogue Reed, that’s your problem. For geniuses, you’re all pretty stupid.” Looking down at the two Reeds that attacked Attilan, he hummed “The clones are impressive, I’ll give their creator that.”

The third Reed, this one wearing a lab coat over a shirt and tie, asked “How did you know-?”

Tony grinned and pointed at the second Reed “Observation involves all five senses, hearing among them. I picked up your accent, read your body language and I’m quite familiar with people hating me for things outside my control so I’ve learned to differentiate between the sources of that irrational hate, not like you change the minds of those who don’t use their heads.” Pointing to the first Reed “Your formation puts you at the front so I called you Alpha since you’re a pack leader, probably got a bigger sense of superiority than the other two combined with the way you sneered at me for daring to speak.” Turning to the third Reed, “You’re best of the three. A true scientist, you didn’t jump to conclusions or allow any preconceived notions to dictate your behavior. You actually ask questions, even when you personally feel like it’s a stupid question, you take those feelings out of the equation. The problem with that is, you’re not very special, I’m struggling to find something to latch onto to differentiate you from other Reeds. In fact, you hardly register as a threat. Yes, you all have Infinity Gauntlets but you’re in the wrong universe to use them. Every action you take using those Gauntlets damages the Multiverse because you’re using the power of another universe to effect change in our universe.” Tony sighed “And now I see Alpha’s true motives. Preemptive action to prevent change. Does that ever work?”

The third Reed said “I suppose you’ll just have to call me Dr. Richards instead of Reed to differentiate between me and your version.” Suddenly, he stopped floating and time around him slowed to compensate for his fall. Upon landing, he simply walked up to Tony to ask “What were you saying about preemptive action?”

“Those are clones you just passed. This isn’t the first time my Reed has been approached about joining your council but last time he refused because your council requires members to abandon the lives they’ve built in their own universes. If a Reed could successfully clone himself then it stands to reason any Reed could have a clone on standby to fill in for them while they attend to matters of the council. However, the primary issue with cloning is sentience. If you make a clone that is indistinguishable from its donor and that donor is a member of a sentient species, which is to say one that can think or feel, then the clone would have to be self-aware. At some point, the clone develops survival instincts, likely long before reaching the point of being effectively indistinguishable from the source in regards to sentience. Now imagine that donor was one of you. Assuming the cloning project is a success, the Reed who made this breakthrough could change how the council operates by enabling you to maintain your previous lives through a clone. However, failure might take the form of a rogue Reed and that is an easy enough scenario to manipulate for someone who does not want things to change, who thrives under current conditions and abhors change. As I said, the clones before us are impressive. In fact, I was nearly fooled. I may have even been completely duped if I didn’t have first hand experience with the results of genetic engineering. Furthermore, going back to maintaining the status quo, every member of your council is counted among the smartest people in their universe. If one Reed could successfully clone himself and approached the wrong founder with the possibility of sharing this breakthrough then that founder could use that Reed’s work to frame him. As I said, it’s an easy manipulation.”

Dr. Richards nodded, “Yes, it is.” He walked back over to the clones to study them, “Interestingly enough, most Reeds wear some variation of the suits worn by your team.”

“I figured as much. You wouldn’t want to sign something like this.” Tony said “If we’re right, Dr. Richards, then the Reed who made the breakthrough is likely long dead. Can you tell me who directed you here? Both to this universe and this specific place.”

Before Dr. Richards could answer, the Fuhrer said “Enough of this nonsense.”

Tony kept his attention on Dr. Richards, “Lemme guess, mind meld with Doctor Doom. Our version is completely reformed. In fact, he actually gave up the power of an Infinity Stone at the end of our Infinity War not too long ago, which should tell you something about his maturity. We were most active when Victor and I were in college, I’d like to think we all mellowed out in the decades since.” He moved closer to the other scientist, “What are you looking for?” Sensing danger, he ignited. Despite being pyrokinetic since he was 12, Tony knew how burns felt. As soon as he lit up, he started burning but pain was an old friend, he just kept his mouth shut and pushed the flames out. He just knew that whichever Reed it was, they had just taken his fireproofing, a mistake that was soon rectified. By the time Crystal realized Tony couldn’t stop the fire and doused the whole area in water, it was too late. He was still alive and conscious. Like Thundra, he was a goner yet still stuck around.

The mystery of which Reed nearly killed him was quickly solved as the one Tony had dubbed Alpha taunted his native counterpart for not having the guts to kill. If he could move, he might have smiled when he heard Nathaniel reply “Why should he?” He could hear Ben and Gorgon move out of the way as measured steps approached his prone form. The two surviving Reeds were probably staring if their silence was anything to go by as Nathaniel continued, crouching beside the burned man, “You haven’t done anything that can’t be undone.” Then Tony felt the pain receding as Nathaniel used his temporal power to reverse the burning effect. With a slight nod to the people behind them, he had Tony join them. Moving onto Dr. Richards, the Reed in a lab coat, he repeated the process, ignoring the man’s screams. Pointing at the clones, he set the kindest of his son’s counterparts to work. Finally, he turned his focus back on Alpha Reed, “Son.”

“You are not my father!”

“I am a version of him just as the Beast is a version of me.” Nathaniel walked right up to the man who had caused so much pain with calm measured steps, “Just because your father is a homicidal maniac, that does not excuse your behavior.” As he closed the distance between them, Alpha Reed aimed the Gauntlet at him. Nathaniel had no reaction, “I am not afraid of you, nor was I afraid of your father. Many of our counterparts greatly feared him, that is why they called him the Beast. All of us were granted temporal powers and told only one of us can have them, that we must kill all others. It was in this environment your father thrived while I strove to escape. Ultimately, I did so by altering the form my temporal powers took. Tell me, son,” He placed his hands on the killer’s shoulders, “would you have been able to do the same in my position or would you simply resort to genocide as your father did?” Taking advantage of the other man’s moment of contemplation, Nathaniel used his power to de-age the man, the Gauntlet vanishing from his hand once he was younger than he'd been upon gaining it. When he was a teenager, Nathaniel stepped back. The council member he revived used his own Infinity Gauntlet to take all five alternate Reeds away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For Nathaniel Richards, I’m thinking Ioan Gruffudd (2005 FF Reed) as a kind of throwback or fusion of the two movieverses since I've already said I'm using the 2015 cast of the Four (minus Johnny since Tony is Johnny).  
> I wonder if Disney will try their hand at a Fantastic Four movie now that they've bought up all of the Marvel movie rights.  
> This one, the last one and the next one should all flow together, at least that's the plan. We'll see how the next one turns out.  
> Lemme know what you think


	30. Family

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wrapping up a three-parter, the Fantastic Four settles back into the Baxter

Once his doppelgangers were gone, Tony ran over to his Reed and put a hand on his shoulder to pull him aside. “Reed!” The absent minded scientist’s body snapped to rejoin his shoulder when his colleague spoke his name.

“What is it, Tony?”

The Inhuman seemed to realize his clothes were in tatters around his waist, which he had unconsciously pushed the fire away from when he still had control. “First off, can I borrow your nanites?” Reed’s left hand touched the Four on his chest while his right wrist touched Tony’s wrist. A flood of tiny robots surged over to cover the Human Torch. Reed had the idea to pack a whole suit’s worth of nanites in each suit. He was left with enough for a small shield in his own suit after sharing with Tony. “Thank you. Second, does your wife know that your father is alive?” Reed’s eyes bulged as he realized he had forgotten to tell either of their teammates what had happened to his father. “I’ll take that as a no. Third, when’s the last time you and Sue have had time to yourselves? And I am not counting time in the bedroom because I know you sleep less than I do and I’ve been reliably informed that caring for an insomniac is stressful.”

Reed admitted, “I don’t know, to answer your question.”

Tony said “Then I’m locking you out of the lab until you catch up on your paperwork and plan a date to go out with your wife. Ideally, you should tell her about your father before your date and give her time to think about the relationship your son might have with his grandfather. Don’t let the date become ’too good to be true’.”

“You and Crystal-“

“I came here from a lesson on Attilan marriage customs. Don’t deflect. Find somewhere for your father to sleep.”

While Reed led his father upstairs, Tony walked over to Maximus and pulled his communicator off the man’s wrist, having slipped it on during his crash course in temporal distortion. Tony checked his messages on the wristband, making sure his space experts had sent their briefings, before lowering the control panel and replacing the flooring. Ben asked “What was that with you and Reed?”

“I pointed out Sue doesn’t know Nathaniel is alive, as an example of Reed’s issues with communication.” When he looked at Ben to answer his question, he noticed the concerned looks his family was giving him. “What?” He walked up to the cryo-chamber, “Ben, let’s get this back where it belongs.”

“What about the roof?” asked Ben, used to dealing with geniuses deflecting.

“You can’t see it from the outside and it’ll be fixed by the end of the week. Besides, there’s nothing to get damaged in here if we put everything back underground.”

“Alright. Tony, you got a few new scars.”

“From Afghanistan, the Arc Reactor and generally being Iron Man. All things considered, I definitely learned from our team’s mistakes.” Tony sighed as he replaced the flooring once Ben moved the chamber into place, “I can see if Helen’s research has reached Inhuman development levels.”

“Eh?”

“Helen Cho’s regeneration cradle? I might be able to convince her to use it on the deeper scars, if she thinks she’s ready for superhuman testing. I was actually thinking of asking her to help Nathaniel but before I can even ask on his behalf, Reed needs to have a serious adult conversation with his wife. As things stand right now, Helen would probably be better off doing the scans herself to see if Nathaniel even needs her cradle. Reed and Sue arguing all the time about Franklin’s power usage is not doing anyone any favors, especially not Franklin.”

“Never noticed it before,” Ben began, making a point of looking at Tony “But you don’t talk about your folks much.”

“Neither do you. How do you think Reed got away with not telling you and Sue that his father’s alive? Parents don’t come up in conversation a lot.”

“Alright.” Ben could read between the lines and see parents were a bit of a trigger for his friend. He took advantage of the fact they still hadn’t gotten the all-clear to pull a confused Gorgon to the other side of the room to explain a few things. Tony and Crystal both stopped other members of the family from following.

Crystal asked “How come-” she wasn’t sure how to even finish the question.

“Burning isn’t fun but that wasn’t my first time, definitely the worst but not the first.” Tony said “I’d rather not think about that.” He went over to Herbie, “Check the Baxter. If it’s clear, tell Sue to meet us there.” Turning back to his family “Let’s all do the paperwork there and you guys can take Lockjaw back home.”

“Sounds like a plan,” said Karnak.

“Triton could head to Atlantis if you don’t need him for a few days. Whatever keeps you heading back there isn’t Namor, not sure how long you expected to keep up that charade.” Studying the scaled Inhuman, Tony guessed “It’s all the other fish people, isn’t it? You like visiting because you don’t need a hydrator down there?”

“Yes,” admitted Triton.

Tony shrugged “Makes sense. Not sure why you tried to hide it. Namor spends his much needed above water time in isolated coves for a reason.”

Reed came back down shortly after Herbie confirmed it was safe to return home. Sue asked “What happened?”

“Long story that Reed will tell you after you two put Franklin to bed. Unless I missed something while I was in Attilan,” Tony looked between them.

“You didn’t,” answered Sue.

“Herbie, reactive GPS beacons,” Tony fed him the code and the helper bot once again spoke in monotone when he carried out the order.

“It’s good to be home!” said the bot immediately afterwards.

Franklin had his arms up and Reed obligingly picked him up, carrying him out of the room as his parents talked. Ben said “Not to jinx anything but that was easy.”

“We still have paperwork and Reed still has to explain Nathaniel.” Tony asked Herbie “Can you retrieve some tablets so we can file our paperwork?”

“I am on it!” The bot flew away to do as asked, a smile projected on his face.

Ben asked “Are you ever gonna tell us all those codes?”

“Yeah, I’ll probably tell Sue first so Reed doesn’t abuse the overrides but you’re a close second.”

Ben chuckled “Alright then.” Herbie brought them tablets, already displaying the required forms for their reports, “Thanks Herb.” Following his example, the Royal Family each thanked Herbie, the king nodding his thanks.

“You are all very welcome.” As they became engrossed in their post-battle work, Herbie flew off to start cleaning up.

Tony finished first and moved to help Black Bolt with his, giving more comprehensive instructions than the form did. Crystal chose to help Gorgon, who was visibly frustrated, with his form after finishing hers. “How are you already done?”

Ben heard the question, looked up, and answered “Crystal used to help me before Tony made our tablets me-proofed.”

Crystal nodded “Don’t worry about breaking them, they’re all durable enough for Ben to use.” She helped him with the questions, directing him to change some of his answers. Once they were all done, Crystal collected the tablets and Tony opened a slot in the wall for her to deposit them.

“What’s that?” asked Gorgon.

“Before I made Herbie a body, I still wanted him to be a helper so I installed these chutes throughout the Four’s headquarters.”

“Wait a minute,” Ben said “Herbie wasn’t always a robot?”

“He’s a self-learning AI. He learns from the people around him. You can teach him stuff like metaphors and he’ll actually absorb it. Making an AI as advanced as Herbie self-learning prevents things like Ultron, where their thinking is concrete and they won’t make the same allowances humans do.”

“He’s advanced?”

“Ben, Herbie learns from those around him. You could teach him how different sports are played and then talk to him about the last game that was broadcasted. If he wasn’t so advanced, he might get hung up on the fact that sports are not essential to life.”

“Huh.” Ben said “You built his body the way you did on purpose, didn’t you?”

“In a very literal sense, yes. I kind of had to know what I wanted him to look like before I started building him a body, that’s how such a thing works. What you’re really asking is if I built him to look as non-threatening as possible for your benefit. The answer to that is also yes, I made Herbie the robot the way I did so you wouldn’t freak out when you saw the helper bot. Until I spelled it out for you, him monitoring the whole house didn’t sink in, didn’t bother you.” Tony chuckled “Then you freaked out a bit when you discovered Herbie controls a system of dumbwaiter chutes. I can’t erase your memory of this nor will I deactivate Herbie and I don’t think you leaving will help anyone or anything. Can you handle knowing what Herbie really is or should I maybe limit your interactions?”

“Yeah, it’s not a problem.”

“Great.” Tony asked Ben “Are you okay? It didn’t even occur to me to spell it out that Herbie wasn’t just a robot.”

“I’m fine, matchstick.” Tony gave him a disbelieving look that would rival one of Black Bolt’s expressions. “It’s not you I’m upset with.”

“Reed didn’t have a choice.”

“What do you mean he didn’t have a choice?!”

“We had to keep the number of people who knew to a minimum at the time. I still don’t think he should’ve kept it from either of you for decades after. In order to do that, he must’ve stopped looking for a cure. Reed didn’t have a choice but to keep it from you when it happened. We needed the timeline to stabilize but at some point during the next thirty years, that excuse really falls apart.”

Ben asked “Why didn’t you say anything?”

“Ben, I wasn’t even at the wedding that was successful, that shows how much we didn’t talk after we broke up.”

“The timeline-”

“After dealing with so many time travelers, that gets a little blurry.”

“Alright, I’ll give you that one. Still mad at Reed-”

“When we were making the cryo-chamber, Reed kept going over to his father who kept warning him not to touch him, telling him to focus because if the plan worked, they’d have all the time in the world, eventually. I think I understand why Reed pushed it to the back of his mind and left it there. Nathaniel talked to Reed, sure, while we were working together. I distinctly remember chuckling as even Nathaniel, who wasn’t totally stable mentally or physically, could see his son loved Sue. Ben, you know how Reed gets. Not being able to help his father soon after he went on ice, that probably hurt him more than losing the man the first time.”

“I- we’re supposed to be friends.”

“Sue’s his wife and he couldn’t find a good time to tell her.”

“Eh, I guess you’re right.”

“You can be angry all you want but you’re only hurting yourself with that anger.” Tony mused aloud, “Franklin could probably make you look human, if you ever wanted to go back to that.”

“I know.” Ben laughed “All that time I wished Reed could make me human again and now that his kid’s got the power to do it, I don’t want it.”

“Do you not want to go back to being human or do you not want to stick Franklin with the burden of trying to do it?”

“Bit of both, I suppose, but I really am happy how I am.”

“Good.”

Reed came back for a moment, “I think we’re all done here.”

“Remember to have someone fix that hole before your father tries to do it and overtaxes his powers.”

“I will,” the absent-minded inventor left the room again.

Most of the Inhumans gathered around Lockjaw, leaving Triton with Crystal and Tony. After the princess crouched down in front of her dog to tell him what to do, giving the dog a pat on the head, they vanished. Crystal asked “Is there a reason you wanted them to take Lockjaw instead of slinging?”

“Lockjaw hasn’t been up there for more than a few seconds in a long time. Doesn’t he need check ups like a normal person or dog?”

“Right and you think-”

“Karnak is with him now.”

“Point taken.”

Tony opened a portal to a secluded cove in front of Triton, who took his hydrator off before running through and diving into the water. The aquatic Inhuman could survive a few minutes without water but in those minutes, his strength would quickly leave him, making for a painful death. As part of invasion prep, Tony shared the hydrator design with Atlantis so they could rejoin the world. If Triton needed a hydrator and couldn’t call Tony or Crystal for whatever reason, he could borrow one.

Ben, Crystal and Tony left Lockjaw’s room and began helping Herbie clean up. While they worked, Ben noticed Crystal and Tony were a lot stronger than they looked. Waiting until the couple took a break, he asked Crystal “Are you moving the air around things or are Inhumans just super strong?”

“More the latter.”

"The upside of eugenics." Tony explained “For centuries, the Genetic Council has overseen conception and Terrigenesis. For optimal results, they match two Inhumans up based on genetic compatibility.”

“Genetic compatibility?”

“There are no accidental births in Attilan. If you get pregnant without the Council’s permission, you have to get an abortion. The Council looks at the DNA of unmarried Inhumans and uses that to pair them up. When the Genetic Council declares your match, you’re engaged.”

“So you two didn’t have a choice,” inferred Ben

“Well, actually, we didn’t know we were matched until after we got together,” said Crystal with a smile.

Tony smiled, “I mean, we probably could’ve figured it out. My mother left Attilan to have a child with a human in order to expand the Inhuman gene-pool. Of course the Council would find a match for the child in question.” Tony told Ben, “We were betrothed shortly after I was born but neither of us knew. I went through my mom’s things after I heard Barnes confessed to her murder and I found a letter she wrote after my Terrigenesis, while I was still in Attilan. I guess she wrote it just in case something happened to her while I was still a kid, it was a bunch of things she planned to tell me once I was an adult. The betrothal was one of those things but Crystal and I were already engaged when I found it, we had gotten together more or less on our own so it was a moot point.” Turning to his future wife, Tony said “Although, I guess that does explain why the Genetic Council didn’t object to us getting engaged. They probably recorded the match without telling your sister about it.”

“Yeah, probably.” With that, they all got back to work, helping Herbie clean up the mess made by the fight with Reed’s counterparts.

The next morning, Reed cooked the whole family breakfast. Tony asked “Are you in the doghouse?”

“A little bit but you were right, we needed to have that talk.”

“You need to have more than one.”

“Agreed,” said Sue as she joined them with Franklin. The little boy was wearing his training suit, which meant he somehow convinced her to let him practice his powers that day.

Tony asked “Did you two actually talk or did Reed just tell you what I told him about you needing to talk?”

“Reed told me what you told him and then said he wasn’t sure how to go about it.”

“Nothing lost, nothing gained.”

“Not quite. We’re working on it.”

“I could take Franklin to the Compound for training, unless you want to keep him close then we can just use his playroom.”

“I’d like to keep him close.”

“Playroom it is.”

“Thanks, Tony.”

“Not a problem.”

Once they finished breakfast, the family went their separate ways. Ben decided to try to teach Herbie about sports since the inventors were both taking a day off, meaning the bot didn’t have to assist them. Reed and Sue continued their talk while Tony and Crystal worked with Franklin on his control.

The kid had a lot of power but he was still young and impulsive, using his power for one thing before moving onto the next. Tony and Crystal worked with him on finishing what he started. Due to the kid’s power, his playroom was much bigger on the inside than it appeared to be on the floor plans. Silently, Tony thought that Franklin could use this skill to defend himself if he needed to. Herbie gave Tony an hour’s notice before his rescheduled meeting with the space experts began.

Leaving Crystal to continue Franklin’s training, Tony put on a regular dress suit while going over the briefing packets with Herbie. For maximum efficiency, Tony used his sling ring to get close to his destination after activating an image inducer and making sure he had what he needed in his pockets. Settling into his office, he turned off the cloaking device before security could freak out about an intruder just walking into said office. The meeting was originally going to be held in a conference room but when he rescheduled, he also moved it to the office he had been given as Earth’s Ambassador. Using the time left before the meeting, he sent his subordinates a message reminding them of the questions that need answering. They couldn’t give him a definitive answer, due to all the things they don’t know about the other planets in their solar system, but after talking it out for a few hours, they managed to come to a consensus. Dismissing them, Tony called Loki, who teleported into his office, and they got most of the paperwork out of the way. “I’ll let you know when we can meet to finish up.”

“And I shall get these to Thor post haste.”

“Mind giving me a lift home?”

“Not at all.”

The Fantastic Four family had dinner together before Reed volunteered to take care of Franklin. Sue was almost suspicious of how focused Reed was. Tony mused aloud “Looks like you two had a good talk, or ten. Everything seems to be coming up Reed.”

Sue turned her attention to the pyro in the kitchen “What?”

“I’ll admit, things didn’t start out great, what with the borderline evil and affably evil Reeds trying a ‘join us or lose everyone you love’ pitch.” Switching gears for a moment, Tony asked Sue “Ya mind lending a hand? I wash, you dry, we’ll both put away.” Sue nodded and joined him by the sink, helping him put the last load of dishes away. “As I was saying, the thing with the Council of Reeds is that they don’t know the value of family, I imagine that was an eye-opener for our rubberband man. I mean, maybe he’s looking at recent events and realizing he needs to make sure he never turns out like his Council counterparts. I don’t know. What I do know is this: Nathaniel has been defrosted and stabilized, the Richards family has a chance to be complete. Last night, I pointed out to Ben that Franklin could probably turn him human and he said he was fine how he is. I don’t know if Reed knows that, I wasn’t with you guys for a few decades, but if he does then that’s another weight off his shoulders. I remember Reed promising to find a way to make Ben human and now, even if he never manages that, he’s still not a failure because Ben is fine the way he is. I’ll admit, I never fully understood the dynamics of their relationship when it came to Reed feeling like he had to find a way to make Ben human again but that’s neither here nor there.” Letting the pan he was scrubbing soak for a moment, Tony turned to Sue “You two are talking, you’re communicating and Reed knows that right now, that’s what he needs the most.”

“Reed seems more focused than usual.”

Returning to the task at hand, Tony confided, “The day I got my powers, my mother told me about SHIELD. She wanted me to know why I couldn’t go around flaunting my Inhuman status and as much as it hurt, she knew telling me the truth about Aunt Peg was the way to do it. I didn’t have my powers for 24 hours before I was told that I would have to hide them from everyone. Keeping secrets from people you love, that hurts like nothing else in the universe. The reason it hurts so much is because every minute you spend with the secret, you know you’re just hurting those people you care about even more. Now that he doesn’t have that secret weighing on his mind, that internal struggle he’s been having and doing his damndest to ignore is finally gone. He’s more focused because his mind is clearer.”

“You don’t talk about your parents much.”

“You are the second person in as many days to point that out to me.”

“All you say about your father is that he was oblivious.”

“Thinking about him leads to thinking about Stane and I’d rather not.”

“Oh, I’m sorry.”

Tony took a fortifying breath and focused on the task at hand. Once they were done with dishes, they joined Reed in the living room to watch Gravity Falls. Seeing Reed look tempted to try to recreate or correct some of the sci-fi elements was comforting for Sue, providing proof that he hadn’t changed too much. Meanwhile, Ben was talking sports with Herbie, trying to educate the AI.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was debating making the next day its own chapter but I decided to leave it be. Lemme know what you think
> 
> Also a note, I love Gravity Falls and when I looked it up, the show is rated for ages 7+


	31. Thundra

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A blast from the past wrecks a party

When Femizons stormed the gala, the three male members of the Fantastic Four immediately stopped talking. Tony twirled Crystal around one last time before the attackers reached him and began to fight. “Enough!” a powerful voice spoke and Tony looked around, noticing how several politicians had blades held against their throats. Straightening from his defensive stance, he looked at the source of the voice.  _ No way, _ he thought as he looked at a woman he watched die. The Fantastic Four had one rule when dealing with Thundra: follow Sue’s lead. That one rule extended to speech, which is why Tony, Ben and Reed shut their mouths the moment they registered the presence of the warrior women. Thundra looked at him, “You’re the Human Torch.” Her tone made it sound almost like a question, to which Tony nodded, his face completely blank. Slipping his hands behind his back, he signed the word red to Medusa and Black Bolt then held up three fingers. He hoped they understood that red W was code for Scarlet Witch since it wasn’t that complicated. Irrational or displaced anger was a clear sign that someone was under Wanda Maximoff’s thrall. The Femizons’ attack was focused on Tony, the usual object of the Witch’s rage. Deducing the recently escaped psychic’s involvement was easy, for Tony.

Carefully, he moved forward into the space around Thundra that her fellow Femizons had cleared. The redhead smiled, an almost wicked expression. Tony wasn’t even listening much as Thundra proclaimed that he had to duel her in order to save the lives of everyone in the room. Sue spoke up on his behalf “What assurance do we have that your followers won’t start killing hostages as a diversion if you start to lose or that they won’t kill everyone if you lose?”

“What assurance do I have that your team will not interfere?”

“Isn’t that what the hostages are for?” As Thundra turned to glare at Sue, turning her back to her opponent, Tony quickly shook his head once. Hands by his side, he tapped his thigh with three fingers then held those fingers up and before doing it again (M W M, Maximoff Wanda Maximoff). Sue subtly nodded and took a big step back “If you want a fair fight, you can’t use leverage like you’re doing now. What’s to stop one of your followers from getting made and slitting a hostage’s throat?” Thundra took the obvious out by having her followers adjust their hold on their weapons and move to block the doors.

“No more talk!”

Tony dodged the first attack with a side step and failed to follow up with a counter attack while his family worked to locate Maximoff and neutralize the threat she posed. From his time on Mojoworld, Tony was a master at dragging out a fight. Unlike his gladiator days, he had no need or desire to hide his skills which kept him from getting severely injured. Within minutes, he had disarmed Thundra and thrown the chain out of bounds, Femizons maintaining a ring around them to keep him from trying to run. While he continued to use only defensive moves, his demonstration of skill made it clear to some that he could end the fight at almost any time. Reed and Maximus took it upon themselves to handle Maximoff once she was located.

Tony jumped back when Thundra let out a particularly savage yell as she was freed from the witch’s control. Finding Sue’s eyes in the crowd, he received a slight nod. In moments, he was on the offensive. Ducking one of Thundra’s shots, he slammed into her midriff, taking her to the ground. Stopping before his momentum carried him down with her, Tony dodged an attempt to bring him down nonetheless before Thundra rolled over to quickly climb to her feet. While he was playing defense, Tony was also analyzing Thundra and her fighting style. Once he switched over to offense, he didn’t give her a chance to recover from the tackle beyond standing before taking aim at her weak points. Thundra smiled at the challenge she was now presented with and went on the defense herself after his first blow. Thundra realized in moments that she was facing a very skilled opponent. Attempts at cornering him are met with expert evasion, the man was fast. In the first few moments of true battle, Thundra realized this man might be a match for her. “Do you even know what you’re fighting for?!” She demanded to know, he gestured at the crowd around them and dodged her sloppy swing. Memories filtered in, a haze lifting from her mind. After putting as much distance between them as she could, she bowed her head and threw up her hands “I yield.” Her opponent instantly stopped and stood up straight, gesturing for his teammate to come and take over.

Sue said “We’re going to need your people to surrender and then we’ll have to arrest all of you for tonight’s attack. Think you can arrange that?”

“Of course.” Thundra gave the orders, dropping hints about the mind control that seemed to placate her fellows, who would otherwise react violently to the idea of letting men put them in chains. 

Tony and Sue helped the agents- who had been on hand as security- deal with the logistics involved in getting the Femizons transported to the proper holding facility and getting in position to vet everyone on their way out. He gave the agents pointers on how to get the various dignitaries to issue a statement  _ before _ they leave, knowing that law enforcement would likely get a variant of the press release if the politicians had a chance to confer with their advisors. When someone claiming to be a special agent came up to ask them to come with her after the relevant, legitimate agents arrived, Tony laughed. Pointing at the ‘special agent’, he told the man they were coordinating with “You can put the cuffs on Romanoff here. I’m sure she won’t risk making a scene around all these federal agents with guns and potentially frayed nerves.”

When he put it that way, the woman had no choice but to surrender “Steve needs your help. The amazons-”

“Sorry but we have reason to believe Wanda was in the heads of the  **Femizons** so Steve will just have to wait.” Despite what he said, Tony knew that was not a viable option but he was not going to let Romanoff know that. Maybe it was petty but he liked taking her down a few pegs.

“Tony-”

“That’s Dr. Stark to you.”

“Not Prince Tony.”

“No.” Tony turned away from her and continued his conversation with the agent.

Over coms, Reed said “That sounds like a serious problem.”

“Yeah.” Richards’ timing was excellent because Tony was actually agreeing with the agent in front of him as he said that. The flustered man was reviewing what the two superheroes had told him and comparing their advice to his protocols, essentially fact-checking.

Ben asked, “What are we gonna do?”

The two men had joined the royal family while the other half of their team helped the agents. Crystal told him “You need to stick to yes or nos if you want Tony and Sue to contribute.” She turned their attention to the pair with the agent across the room. Tony was nodding and the agent’s nerves were showing, “They can’t just walk away and follow up on Romanoff’s tip.”

Reed said “Tony’s right, Rogers can wait.”

Ben turned to him, shocked “You okay, Stretch? Because that doesn’t sound like you.”

“If they kept him alive this long then they’re not going to kill him without getting something out of it. We have time to do this the right way. Skill beats strength,”

“Everytime,” the two men spoke in unison.

With a sigh, Ben changed the subject to something inconsequential, roping Reed into small talk. As they spoke, they kept their eyes on their teammates, even Sue and Tony were separated for debriefs after the lead agent finished with them. Every member of the Fantastic Four was skilled at putting people at ease and equally skilled at giving off an intimidating presence. Not surprising to those who knew them but to strangers, it was an incredible gift. Tony saw the lead agent struggling to get people’s attention and turned away from the agent he was talking to then fired a blast above the lead agent’s head which dissipated before it could do any damage. “You were saying?” he remarked coyly.

Suppressing a smile, the lead agent announced “We will be starting to release you all shortly. On your way out, we will be asking for identification and requesting a statement. You do not have to give any details you do not feel comfortable sharing at this time. The statements will be used to confirm your identity later when we ensure only people who are supposed to be here made it inside.” Letting the smile show slightly, he repeated something Tony said to him “There are two sides to every story, the truth usually lies in the middle. To get to the truth of the matter at hand, we need as many perspectives as possible. Have some form of legal identification ready and thank you for your patience.” The various dignitaries and diplomats were mostly pacified, they could leave soon and all they really had to do was give a sound byte.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feedback makes the world go round


	32. Serious Talks

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The immediate aftermath of the Femizon attack

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Originally, this one and Thundra were all one but I cut this part out to make the last chapter fit its title. Let me know if you think they'd work better as one chapter

Crystal told Ben that she would be leaving with the other members of the Royal Family and meeting the Four back at the Baxter Building. He nodded, turning to the rest of the Inhumans “Be careful. Still got one Avenger and whoever broke them out on the loose.” After they all acknowledged what he said, Ben turned back to Reed “Please tell me you didn’t forget about date night.”

“Date night?” Reed’s impressive mind could miss the obvious sometimes but then again, Ben did jump topics. The scientist recovered quickly “You mean tomorrow? Yeah, I remembered. We were going to do it tonight but then Herbie reminded us of this event and we agreed putting it off for a day wouldn’t hurt anyone.”

“Alright, alright, I don’t need a play by play. My point is that I ain’t letting you put it off anymore than you already have.”

“I know and thank you, Ben. This is important.” He trailed off as he got lost in his own head until Ben put a hand on his shoulder when their teammates walked over. “Tony-”

“I talked to Crystal on her way out. Are you guys ready to go?” Ben nodded and started moving while Sue and Reed fell into step discussing plans for the next day, they had agreed to spend a few hours out of the building not counting travel time. Unbeknownst to most, Reed and Sue owned normal vehicles, partly out of necessity as they strove to provide Franklin with as normal a childhood as possible and the Fantasticar was not very well suited for that. Inside said flying car, Tony typed something in the computer onboard that caused it to shake as though hit with turbulence before he told the team, “I was thinking we could ask Victor and Peter to be on standby if something comes up while you two are out and we need four people.” Ben was the default pilot for the Fantasticar, which freed the other three up to talk or do whatever.

Sue said “Really?”

“Yeah.” Tony answered “They’re unaffiliated so we won’t be stealing from another team and they know us so we wouldn’t have to waste time with explanations.”

“If you need backup tomorrow,” Reed said “Then calling in another team shouldn’t be a problem.”

“I was also thinking about when I have to start going into space for work. Peter might be a good fit to fill in.” The worried inventor explained, “He doesn’t have a team to cover his back and he’s almost as young as I was when I started. The internship is great but without training or a superhero support system,” Tony trailed off.

Many solo heroes only make it because they have some kind of combat training, which they usually received in their civilian identities. Most of those who can’t demonstrate that kind of training don’t survive and those that do are usually the ones who retire early on. Thus far, Spider-Man was beating the odds but he was also living in New York City. During invasion prep, it was discovered that the big apple had more superheroes than any other city on Earth. There were several theories attempting to explain why but ultimately the why did not matter. The fact was young superheroes just starting out were lucky to find themselves in a city with a high concentration of more experienced heroes. Spider-Man was one such hero but unlike most rookies, he already knew he was lucky to be a New Yorker when he decided to become a hero. Another point in the spider’s favor, he stuck mostly to small time stuff, like muggings, instead of trying to be the big hero, foiling something major like a bank robbery his first time out. Spider-Man maintained his secret identity better than most, showing he was smarter than many vigilantes.

Ben landed the Fantasticar while they were thinking about what Tony said. After a few minutes, Reed decided “We’ll see how training goes.” He turned to his fellow inventor, “Tony, we don’t want to replace you.”

“You’re not replacing me.” Tony countered “Someday Franklin is gonna join the team, it’s not always going to be the four of us.” As they got out of the Fantasticar, he continued “We’ll see how training goes and if he’s a good fit then we’ll make the offer with his aunt present. Sounds like a plan?”

“Yeah.”

Tony told the Richards couple “Try to enjoy your date, don’t worry about us. We’ll probably wind up doing a whole lot of nothing, y’know, aside from babysitting.”

“You’re right,” said Sue. “We’ll be fine tomorrow night but we’ll also have to look into what Romanoff said tomorrow.”

“I know. I don’t think it will be too hard.”

“We never did figure out where Thundra was from,” pointed out Ben as they walked towards the living area.

“Hold on. Herbie, is Franklin asleep?”

“He is in his room and he was sleeping when Peter put him there but he seems to have awakened and is toying with his powers. That’s a problem, isn’t it?”

Tony told the AI “It’s fine. Is Peter spending the night or did he go home?”

“Peter already called his aunt to confirm he is spending the night.”

“I’m assuming he’s asleep too then.”

“Correct.” For a teenager on a Friday night, it was still a bit early but considering Peter liked to put in some time on patrol everyday, that wasn’t surprising.

Tony nodded “Thank you Herbie.”

Reed offered, “I’ll check on him.” Then left to do just that.

“Back to what we were talking about before, why don’t you think it’ll be hard to find Rogers?”

“Never said that it wouldn’t be but I don’t think we will have to find him. If the Femizons have been holding him hostage then they’ve kept him alive for a reason.”

“What reason?”

“Well, think about it. The Femizons are all about women dominating men, Rogers is a walking male stereotype. They’re probably going to make an example of him and for that to work, they’ll have to do it publicly, away from their hideout. They’ll bring him out into the open and if it’s within our jurisdiction, we’ll handle it. I honestly couldn’t care less about the Avengers.” As Reed rejoined them, Tony said “We should focus on figuring out who broke the trio of twits out in the first place. If it was the Femizons then security would have been much more prepared at tonight’s event.”

“If you don’t care about the Avengers then why do you care who broke them out?” asked Reed.

“Because whoever did it practically has their pick of supervillains in prison.”

“Right.”

Changing the subject, Tony asked “Did you get Franklin to go back to sleep?”

“Yeah. What he was doing was impressive but I reminded him of the rules about power use and got him back to sleep.”

“You got him to send what he made to the lab, didn’t you?”

Ducking his head bashfully, which looked weird with the way he stretched his neck as he did it, Reed admitted “Yeah.”

“Then I’m going to guess it’s one of those things that involves a question of ethics and assume you’re not going to mess with it without Sue.”

“Right.” Reed snapped back into his normal shape. “It’s late, let’s call it a night.”

“Good idea.” None of them really wanted to talk much anymore so they were all grateful for the escape.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please comment


End file.
